Grab a bottle of Jack and let your southern accent slacken -- the new Drive-By Truckers album has arrived. Here is a band whose persistence never ceases to amaze; they are in a virtually constant touring mode, put on over 300 concerts a year and still manage to put out consistently great albums every year or two. In fact, their new album, A Blessing and a Curse, is the first written in a studio rather than on the road.
I am going to take this opportunity to communicate my philosophy of musical diversity to you lucky readers. Children, listen closely: some of you may see that DBT fall under the alternative-country or southern rock genre and may immediately be turned off. But let's forget all assumptions and try to understand that -- brace yourself -- there is no such thing as a bad musical genre. That's right. No bad genres. Just bad artists.
Now that your minds are open and your palettes refreshed, let's establish the fact that Drive-By Truckers are country rockers and damn good at it. They have built a very impressive discography over their 10 years as a band, and A Blessing and a Curse is no exception, though it is very different.
On the new album, we see the same old Truckers: their signature "triple axe attack," using three guitars, three vocalists and three writers (Hood, Cooley and Isbell) switching off song-by-song on the lead. What we don't find, though, is the unified composition of the South illustrated by their previous albums. One concept of the Trucker's work that was always so appealing was how their albums came together as a whole, most notably on 2001's Southern Rock Opera. But on A Blessing, there is more of a focus on singles, and the tracks are more individual. The emotional tie is definitely lost in this decision, making the album less of a treasure than their previous works.
What isn't lost, however, is the band's great songwriting. Though the sound has become a bit more mainstream, the eccentricity of each singer/songwriter makes it a gripping listen. The flailing chorus of Isbell's "Daylight" is possibly the catchiest moment in the band's discography and might even find some radio air time. Other track highlights include Isbell's "Easy on Yourself" and Hood's "Wednesday."
If you're an established fan of the band, this is definitely a good addition to the collection. But if you're a Truckers virgin and are looking to get to know the group, earlier works like Southern Rock Opera or Decoration Day would make a better choice.
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