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| (Out Now) |
From
the first few bars of “Southeastern” the depth and presence of the acoustic
guitar you know Jason Isbell means business. “Cover me up” is a brave song to
throw as the opening track of an album, not because it is more on a slower
side, but because the intensity of the songwriting. How do you follow it? But
follow he does. This is an album of 12 songs and not a single one of them
sounds even remotely like a filler. Hell, not even one line in the album sounds
like filler. For a songwriter this really is a “kick in the back side” kind of
album. “Southeastern” has become very fast what I would call a fork in a road
album. When you meet someone you know or even a stranger and the conversation
turns to music. You ask if they have heard the album, if they have not you
recommend them to get it as soon as possible. If they have, you start to
compare notes. Which songs did you like, you even go to the details of the
lyrics. I have talked to more strangers about this album in the past six months
than I have about some of my all time favourite albums.
“Traveling
Alone” and “Flying Over Water” are songs to do with traveling and for any
musician easy to relate to. “Elephant’ is the song that drew me to the album in
the first place. Jason bravely tackles the subject of cancer with a very moving
song, but still manages to inject a touch of wit in to it as well.
Jason
has been very open about the changes in his life during the writing and making
of this album and the honesty comes across in the lyrics. The arrangements are
mostly sparse, but on tracks like “Stockholm”, “Traveling Over Water” and
“Super 8″ Jason cranks up the overdrive electric guitars and rocks it out with
his full band. After probably close enough 100 spins, the track that I keep
coming back to is “Yvette”. This track is a real proof of the level of Jason’s songwriting, a true masterpiece.
If
you have not heard of Jason Isbell yet, I highly recommend “Southeastern”. This
album will go down in the history as one of those albums we will talk about
years to come. For me this was the album of 2013, hands down.
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You can read more from J.P. Kallio here.
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