Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (Shock)

 |   |  <1 min read

Jason Isbell: Sunstroke
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (Shock)

It's instructive but perhaps unfair to put this album from the former member of Drive By Truckers alongside their most recent album, The Big To-Do: after a flawed solo debut Sirens of the Ditch in 07 Isbell here sounds in command again, whereas the Truckers album is pretty ropey in places.

Here Isbell and his band (on an album that came out a year ago Stateside but gets belated release here because they are in Australia with Justin Townes Earle) sounds much more in touch with the songwriting craft he brought to the Truckers.

Where The Big To-Do is willfully ragged, Isbell's music here – whether it be his Band-framed back-country pop, melancholy piano ballads or searing guitar-driven, Replacements-like rock – is much more focused and fully realised.

The mini-epic Sunstroke – a ballad of suppressed menace and resentment towards a former lover or friend – opens with “they tell me you walk on the water now” but his vocals get increasingly submerged; Good is ragged but melodic power-pop from the school of Buffalo Tom; the truck-stop mood of Cigarettes and Wine slips between anger and regret about a lost love, No Choice in the Matter is like Little Feat at their most aching. . .

Diverse, distinctive, intense, touches of Memphis soul and much more.

A return to form.

Share It

Your Comments

Chris - Apr 14, 2010

I've had this since it came out in the USA and think, like Sirens In The Ditch, it is a real grower. I think the Truckers miss his creative input more than he misses theirs.

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

The Sleepy Jackson: Personality (EMI)

The Sleepy Jackson: Personality (EMI)

I was surprised that this ambitious neo-psychedelic pop album -- which has been winning huge praise in the UK -- wasn't heftily reviewed here, especially since the visionary behind it (who has... > Read more

Karen Elson: The Ghost Who Walks (XL)

Karen Elson: The Ghost Who Walks (XL)

As you may already know, Karen Elson from England comes with a number of black marks against her on this debut album: she was a model (and no one takes them seriously, huh?) and her husband is Jack... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

The Ramones: Hey! Ho! Let's Go: Ramones Anthology (1999)

The Ramones: Hey! Ho! Let's Go: Ramones Anthology (1999)

Like many of my generation, I can remember exactly where I was when JFK, RFK and John Lennon were shot. And when Kurt Cobain proved, contrary to what he sang, he did have a gun. But with as... > Read more

Simon Thacker's Svara-Kanti: Trikala (Slap the Moon)

Simon Thacker's Svara-Kanti: Trikala (Slap the Moon)

Strange how a chance hearing of something can put you on a different path. When I was about 12 I joined the World Record Club which, if you didn't send a form back every month declining their... > Read more