After an extended weekend filled
with a lot of emotional ups and downs, I returned to work and encountered…mostly
downs. Ah well. As Bad Santa teaches, they can’t all be winners, kid.
Disc 1140 is… Barton Hollow
Artist: The Civil
Wars
Year of Release: 2011
What’s up with the Cover? Joy Williams and John Paul White
share an intimate yet awkwardly distant moment. They thought they could make it
work, but she’s a wine girl and he likes whiskey.
How I Came To Know It: This album was #66 on Paste
Magazine’s Top100 indie folk albums of all time. I gave it a shot, and I liked
it.
How It Stacks Up: Despite Paste Magazine’s opinion, I rank their
2013 self-titled album (reviewed back at Disc 1128) at number one,
dropping “Barton Hollow” into second place
Ratings: 3 stars
Maybe it is that I gave this album an extended
listen just last weekend, or maybe it is that I recently reviewed their other
record, but I wasn’t overwhelmed by “Barton Hollow” the way many music critics before
me have been.
This record got a lot of hype back in 2011 when it
came out, or at least a lot of hype within the subset of obscure indie folk
music. But listening to it, I just kept thinking that that it was good, but
nothing special.
All the elements of their eponymous follow up are
there. Joy Williams and John Paul White have voices that play prettily off one
another, the guitar work is understated and evocative and the songs have
melodies that surprise (and sometimes) delight you. I didn’t feel the emotional
connection in places, though, and it took away from all that technical virtuosity.
The record starts with “20 Years” which features a catchy bit of finger picking on guitar,
and some lovely loose harmonies. The song floats along with a haunting lift and
fall, each verse punctuated by that same guitar sequence.
“20 Years”
explores lost love and regret, as do a lot of the songs on “Barton Hollow.” I
don’t know what eventually came between Williams and White that caused their
breakup after only two records, but it is clear that they’ve mastered how to
sing songs about melancholy and romantic disconnect, even if they weren’t
feeling it yet themselves.
Sometimes it gets so heavy it feels theatrical, and
I was often reminded of that musical number in a Disney film or a musical where
the hero and heroine are in their own scenes, singing songs about how sad they
feel, and how no one will understand them. Lots of hands-to-breast and eyes
cast skyward against the injustice of it all, etc.
On “Poison
& Wine” it works wonderfully, showing that even when you are emotionally
in sync with someone, it doesn’t mean they are good emotions. The song is
bitter and sweet exactly as they intended. Later, “Girl With the Red Balloon” and “Falling”
explore the same emotional landscapes but feel overwrought and filled with
bathos. “Girl with the Red Balloon”
sounds like the title of some European art film and the song felt like its
musical equivalent, overwrought and overstuffed with forced metaphor.
It is a cautionary tale that a song of lost love is
like the surface of a pond. It’s the surface tension of hinting at what’s
underneath that makes it work; push too hard and you fall through and break the
spell.
They take a brief break from all this tear-jerking
reverie on the title track. “Barton
Hollow”; a comparatively upbeat track about some heist gone wrong, filled
with murder and the dread of the damned. A lot of the music on the album is light
and ethereal but Barton Hollow opts for a comparatively crunchy (for folk)
guitar strum that sits down with some gusto into all that crime and sin. I
could have used a couple more like this to give the record more balance.
Instead, it is followed by an instrumental piece
titled “The Violet Hour” which is a
compelling bit of piano that reminded me favourably of early Enya, stripped down
to its essential elements. Like early Enya, it was a lovely composition but not
something I’d put on often unless I was having a hard time getting to sleep on
account of eating cheese too late in the evening or something.
Unfortunately, that would be the summary of “Barton
Hollow” as a whole. The record has some good moments, and Williams and White
are gifted musicians but the record was a bit too mopey, and not in a good way.
The strength of songs like “20 Years”
and “Poison & Wine” easily secure
it a place on my shelves, but it isn’t going to come off for a spin in the disc
player as often as the record’s reputation would suggest.
Best
tracks: 20
Years, I’ve Got this Friend, Poison & Wine, Barton Hollow
