Elegiac
American beauty.
Oh
man. Where do I start with this with this one? Just a few short days
after the review copy of this album had dropped through the letterbox
came the news that guitarist Neal Casal had passed away. The guy was
50 years old. I never knew him of course but as is the way with
musicians they have a mysterious effect on your inner life. It's
subtle, mysterious, hard to pin down, but at the same time very real
and valuable. I first heard his work on the records he made with Ryan
Adams and the Cardinals and it was clear from those classic albums
that he was a man of taste. Always serving the song, enhancing its
message and bringing out each track's emotional heart. It's a style
of playing that he brought to each project he worked on, whether with
the Chris Robinson Brotherhood or GospelbeacH on their latest album
Let It Burn,
which turned out to be Casal's last recorded work. Listening with
that knowledge gives the album an unintentional elegiac quality, but
such is the strength of the songs, its emotional resonance would
still be present had the circumstances been different.
It's
the third album from the band . Their previous record, Another
Summer Of Love,
which came out in 2017, had a slight Anglophilic bent, even borrowing
lyrics from The Jam. Aside from a reference to Winston Churchill on
'I'm So High' and the early '70s Bowie vibe on 'Unswung', Let
It Burn
is firmly rooted in Americana. Its mood is a winning blend of
downbeat and defiant, in a way a reflection or snapshot of modern
America itself. All the songs were written by vocalist/guitarist
Brent Rademaker with drummer/vocalist Trevor Beld Jiminez. They deal
with personal darkness but not in a forced or laboured way. There's a
freshness and spontaneity to them. Ditto the arrangements - plenty of
vocal harmonies and tight playing but with enough space for the songs
to breath. A cliché perhaps to say it but to my ears it's the band's
best album thus far, and one with a touch of Zen about it. High and
low emotions are felt, then let go in order for the next ones to
come. Not a bad way to live let alone make records. Apologies to
anyone who's read this expecting a standard review format. No scrub
that, no apologies, this one is for Neal. Thanks for the music and
rest easy.
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