Friday, 29 May 2009
I’ve really enjoyed my first couple spins through the new Son Volt record, American Central Dust. In fact, the song “Dynamite,” featuring the lyrics “this love is like celebrating the 4th of July with dynamite,” might be their catchiest song (in a good way) to date.
I’ve long positioned myself on the fence with this band in the past. Trace is a hard album to argue with, making it mighty hard to follow up. American Central Dust cuts closest to their best work to date and I think it will age gracefully amongst their catalog. It drops July 7th via Rounder Records.
Buy: Son Volt – “American Central Dust”
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Myspace: Son Volt
MP3: Son Volt – “Down To The Wire”
May 29th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
What happened to Jay Farrar? I used to think he was a great writer, but just repeating a hackneyed phrase like “down to the wire” over and over again just doesn’t do anything for me. I love the album “Trace” but I think I have given up on Son Volt ever doing anything remotely close to that level again…..
May 29th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I’ll admit it’s a curious selection/choice of an MP3 as I don’t think it’s a fair representation of the rest of the record. As I alluded to in my post, Trace is always going to be their zenith, but after repeated listens, I think Farrar has cut a mighty fine recording here.
May 29th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Definitely trust your judgement and taste so I will give it shot…
As always, thanks for the post.
June 2nd, 2009 at 7:13 am
“Trace” is without a doubt their best work, but I’m also a huge fan of “The Search.” The harmonies and melodies on that record are excellent. I am definitely looking forward to this new record.
June 9th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
The Son Volt avenue lost some momentum after Trace, but after some solo work (strong but not brilliant), Jay brought back the band approach with Okemah which was a heck of an accomplishment. And I agree that the Search was darn solid, too.
After listening for years, I tend to wonder if Trace is a SV record or a UT record. It’s clearly the record that Warner Bros. wanted out of him. But in his time with Warner, Son Volt started sounding stale, with the same production time and time again. Then when Warner got off his back (or they cut him or whatever), the music started sounding fresh again.
I cannot wait for this new record…