I was supposed to spend last weekend
watching the Boston Bruins play the Vancouver Canucks. However, a storm blew up
and high winds cancelled our flights so we never even made it out of town.
Instead I paid $400 to stay home,
hang out with friends and play board games. I consider it $400 well spent. As
for the game, I didn’t miss anything after all because the Bruins lost.
Disc 1107 is… Here We Rest
Artist: Jason
Isbell and the 400 Unit
Year of Release: 2011
What’s up with the Cover? Put a bird on it! It’s a
painting by Browan Lollar, who also played guitar on the record. Lollar was
part of Isbell’s backing band, the 400 Unit, for only this one album. That’s
too bad, because this is some pretty sweet bird art.
What
kind of bird is it? I’m no John James Audubon but I’m going to guess that these
are…American Goldfinches. These two are either fighting over a piece of ribbon
or planning to build a nest with it. Because I’m a romantic I’m going to with
the latter.
How I Came To Know It: I discovered Jason Isbell in 2015
when he released “Something More Than Free” (reviewed back at Disc 1088). This was just me drilling through his back catalogue.
How It Stacks Up: I have four Jason Isbell albums. Of those
four, “Here We Rest” ranks fourth. Hey, someone has to finish last.
Ratings: 3 stars
Sometimes it takes an artist a few albums to fully
find their voice and for me it was Jason Isbell’s third solo album that began
to showcase the artist he would become. His storyteller’s heart reveals itself
here, and while “Here We Rest” is uneven here and there it has more than enough
natural brilliance to carry it through.
The album opens strong with “Alabama Pines.” I prefer Isbell’s work after “Here We Rest” but “Alabama Pines” is a timeless classic
that equals anything you’ll hear on any of the three classic albums that
follow. Here he learns to strip down a song, letting his songwriting shine
through, mixing the locomotive-like boom-chuck Johnny Cash rhythm with his
signature high and airy vocals.
“Alabama Pines”
also showcases Isbell’s natural talent to turn a phrase and make an image that
serves a story evocative in its own right. When he sings “I needed that damn woman like a dream needs gasoline” you are
struck that sometimes desires feel like they do need gasoline. Yeah, it makes them
flammable and hazardous, but it also fuels them.
The album showcases Isbell’s love of the blues, and
the guitar work on “Go It Alone” is
solid and tastefully understated. He takes a more traditional barroom blues
style on “Never Could Believe” that
feels a little dated, but there’s no denying the guitar work despite the song not
being one of my favourites. Even when he is playing a more Americana style,
Isbell’s love of the blues comes through in his subject matter; hard scrabble
lives of characters with bad habits and bad choices.
On “Codeine”
a man knows his woman isn’t coming home so long as she can get a fix from an
erstwhile friend down the road. The girl in “Daisy Mae” seeks succor from a dangerous man while fleeing an even
darker situation.
In the middle of the album there is the inexplicable
“The Ballad of Nobeard” which is a
Tom Waits style accordion that stands out like a sore thumb and feels more
indulgent than purposeful. However, since it is all over and done within 27
seconds it is easy to forgive. “Ballad of
Nobeard” leads into a few of the weaker songs on the back half of the
record where Isbell is in danger of losing all the momentum gained to that
point.
Fortunately, things recover at the end with another
galloping rhythm playing backdrop to a subtle character study with “Tour of Duty.” The song features a
veteran returning from war, and evokes a mix of hope for the future with the
recognition that there are going to be some struggles adapting to a simpler
life. Isbell takes that excitement you get when you see your loved one after a
long absence multiplies it by a thousand and then tints the edges of the
experience with an optimism born in sorrow.
This ability to paint nuance where a lesser
songwriter would steer exclusively to patriotism or tragedy is what makes
Isbell great. Knowing he is just going to get better and better from here made
me appreciate “Here We Rest” all the more.
Best
tracks: Alabama
Pines, We’ve Met, Codeine, Daisy Mae, Tour of Duty
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