DRIVE BY TRUCKERS - Brighter That Creation's Dark

Okay, here's my song-by-song new DBTs CD schematic; if I prefer one of the singers to the other, it would be great if somebody could tell me; thanks:

1. "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife": Quiet, slow, passable enough melody; singing doesn't grab me. I assume the daughters and wife are surivors, and this a funeral song? But maybe I'm wrong.
2. "3 Dimes Down": "Stonesy," but in a fairly pro forma way. Quotes the title of Bob Seger's "Rock and Roll Never Forgets," I think. I love rock'n'roll, so this sounds okay to me, but kinda forgettable. No idea what it's about otherwise. Mentions a junkyard.
3. "The Righteous Path": Great. Cadence is totally Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World," but with more kick to it. The lines really snowball at you: Gotta whole lot of debt, gotta whole lot of beer, gotta stay focused. This is the main reason Don is wrong to wish the album started with the next song.
4. "I'm Sorry Huston": She does say Houston, right? My wife's from Houston, so I have soft spot for songs I think are about the city. Sounds pretty.
5. "Perfect Timing": Okay, nice, lackadaisical, ???
6. "Daddy Needs A Drink": Again, okay I guess. I can relate to the words. Singer does not put them over ---- wow, album doesn't sound "great" so far, does it?
7. "Self Destructive Zones": Yeah, I love this one too. Chords at the beginning remind me of "Lodi" by Creedence. Seems to concern nostalgia for 1990, if I'm hearing it right? The girls all took our posters down, and the boys all cut their hair, and eventually all the young folks turned to karaoke.
8. "Bob": Another great one; mentioned it up above. I've actually played this one a few times in a row. Talked lyrics, and I love all the details -- he had more dogs than he ever had friends, and he goes to church every Sunday when the fish aren't biting, and he's not afraid of women, he just has his own way to live, and every day his Mom hears about men who got taken away by other women, and he keeps her yard straight. I've met people like this. Not far from the character in Brad Paisley's dumb satire "Online" (which Xgau justifiably went off on Slate today), but here the character seems sympathetic. And human.
9. "Home Field Advantage" -- I assume this is Shonna again? She's no belter, but oddly, I really don't have a problem with her projection or lack thereof; strange, since Edd usually has a much higher tolerance for timid alt-country-style-folkie-demo voices than I do. But I'm not hearing her as having one. In fact, here I hear her as almost sounding like high-voiced guy, doing modern Nashville style hard pop, not far from James Ingram or Keith Urban.
10. "Opening Act" -- Thematically "Lodi" more than musically "Lodi," I guess; i.e., clearly about a struggling touring band, though it's okay because they're on the guest list in the next town? Or something like that. Slower than I wish it was, but salvaged by being pretty and even a little jazzy, and I like when it slows down into that talked part, and then when the singing returns it's dawn and the van's radio is tuned into a Christian radio station.
11. "Lisa's Birthday" -- Yeah, great honky-tonk saying hello to a bottle of Jim Beam, and I totally agree with Don's Merle comparison. "Lisa's had more birthdays than there are sad country songs about trying to love two women and taking one girl home."
12. "The Man I Shot" -- Excellent heavy repetitive Neil circa Re-Ac-Tor drone, about a murder.
13. "The Purgatory Line" -- Another Shona one? Um...
14. "The Home Front" -- Another one about survivors after a funeral, or are my notes messed up? Sorry; I guess I see some themes recurring here and there, but I always have trouble following concept album narratives, assuming what Edd's saying is true. This is okay, though, I guess. Mentions flat screen TVs; how many songs do that? Sounds sorta like "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M., a song I've always hated almost as much as its retarded video, but this isn't awful. Album might well be better without it, though.
15. "Checkout Time In Vegas" -- Sad, okay melody, not memorable, and I'm starting to understand what Don meant about chopping songs between #13 and 16.
16. "You and Your Crystal Meth" -- See above.
17. "Goode's Field Road" -- Zzzzz.
18. "A Ghost To Most" -- Zzzz too, but at least I detect a sort of drone in this one, trying to lure me in, but too flimsy to actually pull said job off.
19. "Monument Valley" -- Zzzz, but vaguely pretty?

So yeah -- 10 songs probably would've been better (as long as they were the same 10 songs I'd pick.)

-- xhuxk, Wednesday, December 19, 2007 9:13 PM (4 days ago)

Drive By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark: The Anticipation Thread

didn't you already give this album its own thread?

less than a month ago?

(I'm wondering whether there may be one of their singers who bores me more than the other one(s), but I can never keep their voices straight.)

seeing as Southern Rock Opera was Chuck's favorite album of 2002, this is kind of more surprising than if someone said they were a beatles fan but they could never tell which songs were sung by John or Paul.

Oops, sorry. Since I pasted all the talk from the country thread over here, let's make this the official thread, okay?

OK, I believe we're caught up.

I actually sat and listened to this straight through last night after everyone else was asleep so I could really take it in.

As a hardcore DBT fan, I wanted this to reach the heights of Decoration Day and The Dirty South (two of my favorite albums ever) but instead I must resort to the dreaded cliche of 'it coulda been a killer album if they cut it in half.' If this record was 11 songs instead of 19, it would be up there with the band's best work.

Still, after the mediocre Blessing And A Curse and Jason's leaving the band, I really did worry that DBT's best days were behind them, but after listening to this, it's obvious that isn't the case at all.

In response to xhuxk, here's my rundown.

1. "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife": A strange choice for an opener. Patterson is singing well, the song is nice enough.

2. "3 Dimes Down": Whoa, production! It wasn't so obvious on the first track, but on the album's first 'rocker,' you can really hear that this was recorded to tape. Nice to hear the band so raw. Unmemorable song by Cooley though - who sequenced this album??

3. "The Righteous Path": xhuxk nailed it with the "Rockin' In A Free World" reference, but it's still one of the best songs on the album, and one of Patterson's best in years. Beats anything he wrote for the last album. Could have been a great first song.

4. "I'm Sorry Huston": This is GREAT! I love Shonna. Too bad her other two lead vocals on the album are duds. But I'm getting ahead of myself. This song reminds me of The Band.

5. "Perfect Timing": Good stuff, the kind of tune Cooley can write in his sleep

6. "Daddy Needs A Drink": The first real stinker. A title in search of a song.

7. "Self Destructive Zones": Another of the album's best tunes. Cooley could be a star on his own. This is a song in the "Carl Perkins Cadillac" vein.

8. "Bob": I don't like this one as much as xhuxk. I feel that if Cooley made a whole labum of really short tunes like this, it'd rule, but in context - seems like a throwaway. I'd love to see them do this live and stretch it out to nine minutes or so.

9. "Home Field Advantage" -- If there's a hook in here, I can't hear it. Lyrics are clumsy. Shonna's voice sounds nice though. Did she write all the songs she sings? Man I wish I had the booklet.

10. "Opening Act" -- I love this one. All over the place melodically, not much to latch onto, but saved by the beautiful arrangement and lyrics.

11. "Lisa's Birthday" -- Great Cooley tune. He seems to be moving into a more 'outlaw country' direction, which suits him. Did he mean to knick a line from the Simpsons?

12. "The Man I Shot" -- xhuxk says Re*ac*tor, but what he doesn't tell you is that this is more "T Bone" than "Shots." Totally dull, DBT at their blandest.

13. "The Purgatory Line" -- As far as middling, slight songs on this album go, I like this one a TON more than "You and Your Crystal Meth." It would have been a great last song.

14. "The Home Front" -- Don't remember much about this one. See what happens when your album is 77 minutes long?

15. "Checkout Time In Vegas" -- Cooley's lyrics save this one. The man's a poet!

16. "You and Your Crystal Meth" -- One of my least favorite DBT songs since "Sands of Iwo Jima." What exactly is the point of this one, again? So they could use the piano they rented? I'm learning that with DBT, the the more provacative the title, the worse the song.

17. "Goode's Field Road" -- I confuse this one, the one after it, and the one after that, but if it's the one with the riff that sounds like it was written during band practice during a group jam, I hate it.

18. "A Ghost To Most" -- See above.

19. "Monument Valley" -- See above. Of all these, the upbeat one with Cooley on vocals is the best.

Usually you'd say an album is greater than the sum of its parts, but on this album, the opposite is true. There are some really great songs on here - but looking back over the album when it's over, it's too scattered and obtuse to hold up as one of their best.

Still infinitely better than the last album, and there are likely a few growers here, and fuck if I won't be in the front row when they come to town, but ultimately, this is a three star album at best.

Sorry for the lame, obsessed fan, Amazon-style rundown. I greet new DBT albums like a kid on Christmas morning. Oh wait...

For an obsessed fan, it sounds like you don't like this new disc much. That's okay. During the Southern Rock Opera -- Decoration Day phase, I thought the DBT were among the best acts in the country. On The Dirty South, something changed for me. The disc got tremendous critical praise, but the Patterson and Cooley songs just didn't hold up: They were unmemorable and slight. By contrast, I thought Jason Isbell really stepped forward on that disc, with two stunning songs (Danko/Manuel and Goddamn Lonely Love). I thought that Isbell would have to become the focal point of the band if it was going to develop (unless Patterson and/or Cooley returned to form). Then, when Isbell left, I had no interest at all in Blessing and a Curse. I can get it on eMusic, but I've never bothered.

Anyway, for all those reasons, I was hoping for something special on this new disc; some reason to start caring about the DBT again. I want to start loving their music again. From your rundown of the tracks on the disc, tho, I fear the worst.

my favorites on are "self-destructive zones," the iraq triptych ("the man i shot," "purgatory line," "the home front")(and i know "purgatory line" isn't an iraq song but its placement there sort of makes it one), "lisa's birthday," "the righteous path," "bob," "a ghost to most"... my favorites are heavy on cooley songs, i guess. overall i think it's a sort of growed-up album. isbell leaving gave them a chance to retrench and reconfigure, and making the pedal-steel player a permanent member gives them options for more varied approaches. (i was never too sold on the three-axe-attack thing, too often it just made them murky.)

(oops which is all kind of what i said on the other thread. well whatever.)

I agree with all your picks except the so-called 'Iraq trilogy.' I do miss Jason, though.

Daniel, take my 'review' with a grain of salt. It's not like I didn't pre-order the album / t shirt package AFTER I heard it. There is plenty of Brighter Than Creation's Dark - at leats 45 minutes of it - that totally rules.

You're also missing out if you ignore Blessing And A Curse - while it's true it is their weakest album (by far), as a Jason fan you're missing out on "Daylight," the poppiness of which laid the groundwork for his solo album, Cooley's "Gravity's Gone" and "Space City" are easily worth the price of admission, and Patterson's "Aftermath USA" is good Stones-y fun. The rest is mediocre / disposable, but nothing on it is as flat-out shitty as "You and Your Crystal Meth."

yeah "daylight" and "gravity's gone" are both good.

I agree with all your picks except the so-called 'Iraq trilogy.'

really? man i think "the man i shot" is pretty great, sort of harrowing. and "puragtory line" is one of my 3 or 4 favorite songs on the album.

purGAtory

I think "The Man I Shot" is Truckers on autopilot. I mean, I'm sure it'll be kickass live, but...

"The Purgatory Line," though, yeah I agree, it is really a nice respite form the rock. I'm re-lisetning now, and it stands out more on repeated listens.

missing out if you ignore Blessing And A Curse - while it's true it is their weakest album (by far), as a Jason fan you're missing out on "Daylight," the poppiness of which laid the groundwork for his solo album,

...which solo album was even duller than Blessing And A Curse. (Lots of details about both on the past couple rolling country threads; no need to repeat them here -- they're searchable if you want them. And yeah, they both had moments, though I'm not sure what was "poppy" about the Isbel album, which mostly just sounded lethargic to me--unless you're a fan of, say, solo Paul Westerberg, which I'm not. New album, if I don't say it above, is the best DBTs set I've heard since Decoration Day, and still could probably afford to be half as long.) (And yeah, it's probably kinda lame that I've never kept score re: whose songs I've liked more over the years. What can I say? I just haven't, and the last few albums boring me might have something to do with it, as might my usual tendency to neglect to read songwriting credits. Someday I will, maybe -- definitely if, say, I ever write something for print. It will require some graph paper, though.)

I didn't like what I heard from Isbell's solo disc, either. Dull. But his contributions to The Dirty South are pop-ish and heartfelt.

Dull and overly-glossy, I should say.

("Shotgun Wedding" was the track that made me think "solo Westeberg" fwiw. And though it wound up irritating me, it was more upbeat than most of the rest of the album, to my ears. Lots of the rest of which struck me as resembling a songwriter's demo.)

I like solo Westerberg.

xhuxk - you won't need graph paper - Patterson has the high voice, Cooley has the low voice and writes great lyrics. Shonna is the girl, and you already know Jason's voice. What's confusing? I can see mixing up which Libertine is who or something, but these guys have fairly distinctive voices.

I've only sort of half-listened to the leak, but "Bob" stands out as a stinker and "Ghost to Most" as a winner.

Yeah, I'm not so into "Bob," as far as Cooley songs go

What I mean is that I've never calculated "I like this many DBTs songs sung in a high register" vs. "I like this many sung in a low register"; how hard is that to understand? (Honestly, I don't even tend to categorize them that way. I'm not saying it would be all that difficult, if I put my mind to it. Just saying it doesn't come naturally to my ears; it would take a little bit of effort on my part, and what can I say? I'm lazy sometimes. If your ears are different, good for you.) (For whatever it's worth, I'm exactly the same way with Brooks & Dunn, who made my favorite album of a couple years later.)

At any rate, my hunch is that Cooley is my guy, for whatever it's worth. And I'm stumped that people dislike "Bob," which might have both the best lyric and the best hook on the album. Here's Edd Hurt; I didn't see this post up above, for some reason:

"Bob" is about a typical good old boy--he loves his mama, keeps her yard cleaned up, takes her to the store. Really affectionate song. And "Perfect Timing" is a song about songwriting, the sources of their Art, etc. "I used to hate the fool in me/But now I tolerate him all day long." I'm still not quite sure I understand "I'm Sorry Huston" but it does seem to be about a guy and not the Texas city, since she sings "I promised Huston I'd try." I dunno. Like any band of veterans--I remember seeing them in Memphis in '98 or '99--they're about a way of playing as much as songs at this point, so the record kinda reminds me of the latest Wilco record as an exercise in pure style, which is indeed Exile-esque. Slightly out-of-tune, slightly oblique, turned in on itself. "And the pawn shops were packed like a backstage party" strikes me as self-referential in a way that suggests they think the party's really over. I don't get much sense that Spooner Oldham adds much to the thing, myself; it's a guitar record. (He didn't add much to their playing on the LaVette record, which I greatly admire but from a distance these days; what an arty record.)

The achievement of the record is that you really gotta listen to the words, and the words ain't bad at all. Very Southern, but they've Seen It All. Now I have to go put on headphones and really figure out what "Huston" is all about (not John Huston, certainly, altho that would make a nice complement to the John Ford reference, and maybe they've been watching Wise Blood on VHS when they're off the Road...?).

-- whisperineddhurt, Thursday, December 20, 2007 3:22 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Link

I guess "The Righteous Path," "Self Destructive Zones" (the somewhat muffled lyric of which requires more attention than I've managed to give it so far) and "Lisa's Birthday" (the lyric of which strikes me as a bit honky-tonk-by-numbers for some reason, but the words still remind me of something that Tom T. Hall--not at his best but at his, um, second-best-- might write, which still equals "very good") would be "Bob"'s competition -- that adds up to, let's see here, one Patterson and three Cooleys, right? (I cheated, but don't tell anybody.) So I guess he wins this round. But either way, "Bob" is way up there.

Cooley > Patterson, but you always get the idea Patterson tries harder.

Hah. If ILM had a "DAMNED BY FAINT PRAISE" thread category to go along with "WHERE IS THE LOVE FOR," this'd be a template for the former.

If my interest had been piqued in trying this one out on a spec buy, it's gone now. Three tunes added as padding, another with a riff sounding like it was written during "band practice," someone "singing well" on the kickoff cut, stuff the sounds like Neil Young -- the Young stuff that's second rate, "unmemorable" good songs.

After masticating this so thoroughly and serving it up as props, it's a shame their aren't a few more jokes in the text so if someone from the band drops by on a Google and they have a sense of humor, they'll at least have a laugh.

FWIW, I've always much preferred Patterson over Cooley.

It also might've helped if the title of the thread weren't bollixed with a typo. A Google-proofing, sort of.

Yeah, Brighter Than is too long, as always, but yeah it's better than A Blessing And A Curse, but yeah that's def worth springing for a used copy; Isbell's album made my Pazz & Jop and Jackin' Pop Top Tens and will make make my Nashville Scene Top Ten too and I reviewed it twice and will do so again, in with more stuff about the ups and downs of Trucker loads since Southern Rock Opera, incl this new one.

Oot-greet. -- Don Martin Step's Out.

If my interest had been piqued in trying this one out on a spec buy, it's gone now.

fwiw i'm not all that huge a dbts fan and i like this album. i've always been sort of distantly warm to them, i like their shtick but the music wears on me a bit. i think that's why i like this one, partly, the varied textures from more cooley songs (he's the tuneful one, really) and shonna getting some airtime. but even patterson's songs i think have an improved hit-miss ratio on this compared to the last few. he's more focused.

Hmmm, distantly warm. The music wears. Improved hit-or-miss ratio. Thanks but no thanks.

Southern rock for the niche audience who thought they liked southern rock but didn't, really. Charity case admiration because they're so pseudo-literary. That's what comes to mind whenever I read something about DBT.

Come on, that's going way to far, dude. Not pseudo-literary at all. They reference Southern Rock the way Royal Trux reference Guns N Roses. As in, as a means to an end, and to a much greater good.

Like I said, damned by more faint praise. Now let's see, what would be the band that slaughters Creedence Clearwater Revival for the indie crowd?

Black Mountain?

Black Mountain! Grace Slick's autobio revealed her close encounter with Jim Morrison; the Black Mountain oracle's delayed/forced vibrato is thee fruit of such nights: " Mmwuh. Huhhhhhh." Keeps me listening, anyway. The thing I like about Jason's lyrics is a sense of justice: he knows how to view, how to present the people he writes about. "Glossy"--yeah, he's got the hooks, the chops, is that a problem?

Cooley > Patterson, but you always get the idea Patterson tries harder.

OTM. I'm really ready for the Cooley solo joint. Sort of. It's telling that everyone digs "Self-Destructive Zones," which isn't even quite "Gravity's Gone"...

The Purgatory Line is grrrebt tho, if not exactly what you go to DBTs for...

Yeah, totally, I mean, if someone was like, "check out this long lost Tusk-era Fleetwood Mac tune with Christine McVie on lead vocals - it's SO weird!" I'd be putting it on mixtapes like crazy

i just put it on a mix disc...

(also happy holidays there mr. mexico)

and happy holidays to the mothras!

Wow, this is way better than I expected - moody and epic. Definitely their most "country" album yet. Shona's contributions are great, especially "The Purgatory Line". "Bob" and "The Opening Act" are awesome too. Lots of potential growers, no huge duds out of nineteen (where the last one couldn't make it consistently through eleven!). I'm impressed.

Yeah, it's a real good one. "Bob" is great!

This is pretty good, but I think it could still use some trimming. I don't get the love for "Bob", that would the first one I'd cut. "The Opening Act" and "That Man I Shot" are my early favorites.

OTM about cutting "Bob" but I really don't like "That Man I Shot!" The fact that there really is no consensus about which songs should be cut is a testament to how great this (still too long) album is.

FWIW, that was the first Pitchfork review I've enjoyed reading in a long time

So, it's pretty much only common knowledge among real hardcore DBT fans (like me) that Cooley is by far the better songwriter, right? Because most reviews (including a horrendous one in Spin) tend to zero in on Patterson, but every DBT fan I know prefers Cooley.

FWIW, that was the first Pitchfork review I've enjoyed reading in a long time

Josh is a good 'un!

I'm a huge DBT fan and it's pretty much split who's the better songwriter. Cooley probably has the highest highs, e.g. Zip City, Uncle Frank, Gravity's Gone, but Hood is clearly far more prolific.

Isbell was obviously great, too. Outfit is probably my favorite Truckers song of all.

every DBT fan I know prefers Cooley

yeah. but patterson (for better and worse) provides the mythology. conceptually he sort of built the band, even if the other guys sometimes put it to better use than he does.

somehow, i'm intrigued by this band but have never listened to them. could someone do a compare thing for me? are they anything like, say, my morning jacket?

no, MMJ are to my ears kind of one of those bands who are a jam-band but who also sound like a distant Kain-tuck cousin of the Move--big lumbering riffs but with annoying (at least on their live disc) electric piano or some shit. (Do you get the idea I think My Morning Jacket are overrated?)

"Self Destructive Zones" sums up this record in my opinion; but I like it, it's quite listenable. Many will say Exile but "Casino Boogie" on that one still makes me flop like a fish who can't quite reach Beale Street but done got up from the Big River. This one never does that--ultimately, I find bands like the Drive-By Truckers a bit ropey myself. But I feel their pain, I'm from the South, and I know what they (seem to) be getting at and I think they're probably Good People.

And, comparison: Alan Jackson's in some ways quite similar (hey Alfred, remember my Go-Betweens/John Anderson comparison, which I'd be glad to seriously discuss sometime, a compliment to both) new Good Time is just as professional-Southern as the DBT's record. And just as fucking long--17 songs at 75 minutes, all of which Alan wrote hisself, including...his own "Self Destructive Zones" that's set not in the '90s but in 1976 (Alan compares himself to Jimmy Carter on that one), called "1976," and then "Small Town Southern Man," his current single, which is just as received-art non-songwriting songwriting as anything on the Truckers' record.

the southern-rock and country-rock reference points for dbts make sense, but their lineage also includes the replacements, maybe even the meat puppets, assorted college-rockers.

The Truckers are sort of like Lynyrd Skynyrd, if they grew up listeining to The Ramones and voted Democratic.

The Truckers are sort of like Lynyrd Skynyrd if the latter were fair to lousy, had fair to crappy guitar players, no one like Ronnie Van Zant and no discernible boogie rhythm section.

(hey Alfred, remember my Go-Betweens/John Anderson comparison, which I'd be glad to seriously discuss sometime, a compliment to both)

Do tell! I know little of Anderson's work, unfortunately; your analogy will go a long way towards giving him due consideration.

Gorge couldn't be more wrong. Skynyrd never wrote anything as good as "Marry Me," "Outfit," or "Dead Drunk and Naked," bub

Their best since Southern Rock Opera I think.

so, OK, someone who knows the Truckers' work better than I--rank 'em! (the records I mean)

Whew, let's see....this will be an unpopular list

Decoration Day
The Dirty South / Southern Rock Opera (tie)
Pizza Deliverance
Brighter Than Creation's Dark
Gangstabilly
Blessing and a Curse

not counting the live album

I haven't heard the first two records, so

Decoration Day
(new one, maybe)
Southern Rock Opera
The Dirty South
A Blessing and a Curse

sp, ha we agree on #1 at least

Assholes couldn't be more wrong. DBT never wrote anything as good as the album Second Helping, bub

DBT even have trouble keeping even with the first Outlaws LP.

Skynyrd never wrote anything as good as "Marry Me," "Outfit," or "Dead Drunk and Naked," bub

Horse. Fucking. Shit.

1. Second Helping
2. Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-nerd
3. Street Survivors
4. Southern Rock Opera
5. Nuthin' Fancy
6. Gimme Back By Bullets
7. Decoration Day
8. Skynyrd's First And...Last
9. Pizza Deliverance
10. Gangstabilly / Brighter Than Creation's Dark (tie)

(What can I say, I hate live albums.)

This from the guy who can't tell Hood and Cooley apart. It's like mixing up Rod Stewart and Johnny Cash.

Everyone knows Allmans > Skynyrd anyway, skin-nerds, and Little Feat over all. Take that!

No, everyone does not "know" that, dimwit.

(And believe me, if DBTs had made a good album in the last four years, I'd care more than I do about telling their singers apart.)

Well, sorry about the "dimwit" part (up above you seem less ridiculous, and I probably seem less drunk), but seriously: They made a couple good albums a half decade ago. That fact alone does not require me to know which guy may have sung fewer of the countless boring songs they've done since then.

They reference Southern Rock the way Royal Trux reference Guns N Roses

Still... they're not that shitty, come on.

okay this thread is officially worth reading all the way through.

Now, considering that DBT based a big chunk of their career on Skynyrd, it's fair to compare them, but it feels a little unfair to me to put their albums on the same list; because they aim and achieve such different things. DBT wouldn't exist without Skynyrd, but DBT have been so good (esp. circa Southern Rock Opera) that not only they built a career for themselves, but also made the experience of listening to Skynyrd even richer. It's kinda like the relationship between The Man with no name movies and "Unforgiven"

Having said that, "Brighter" is sooooo much better than the previous couple of albums. I really, really like the Fleetwood Mac direction they've taken with letting Shonna write and sing. It's such an unexpected yet so sensible choice to begin moving forward without Jason.

They made a couple good albums a half decade ago. That fact alone does not require me to know which guy may have sung fewer of the countless boring songs they've done since then.

No, but it is surprising that a critic/journalist who considered one of those albums the best of that year would have no idea which guy has the high voice or which one has the low one or which song has the high voice or the low voice (or that the third banana was replaced between the albums). If there was ANY album that would have inspired a modicum of curiosity about who's-in-my-earhole in 2002, you'd think it would have been SRO.

It's not like you HAVE to know who-sang-what, but the disinterest (not to mention lack of perceptiveness) is ironic and noteworthy.

<i>It's kinda like the relationship between The Man with no name movies and "Unforgiven"</i>

Except Clint Eastwood acted in all of them, not him and someone who enjoyed his early movies and sort of worked in the same vein except only for art house audiences.

SRO is ambitious and self conscious, but the trick was pulled out very well because they always seemed closer to the "anal retentive fan" side than to the "art school wannabe" side. To me, that saves them from being "only for art house audiences".