|
|
Jay Farrar - Sebastopol, 2001
I think I wore out my copy of Trace, the first album by Jay Farrar's band Son Volt. It was country, it rocked, and it still has some of the best songs I've ever heard. But the two Son Volt albums that followed - Wide Swing Tremolo and whatever the other one was called - sounded like poor imitations of that first album. I don't know what finally happened, but Sebastopol is the album a lot of us hoped would come out after Trace. It's filled with more of the keyboards and “modern” sounds that his old partner Jeff Tweedy has come to favor in Wilco, but maintains his more traditional arrangements and distinctive voice. More than that, the songs are fantastic - they are huge in scope, with great hooks and good lyrics. Only on the "bonus tracks" at the end of the album does he sound like he's repeating himself. The opening "Feel Free," "Voodoo Candle," "Feed Kill Chain" and "Barstow" (with Gillian Welch and David Rawlins) are standouts, and "Damn Shame" plays way too often in my house. It's not as "country" as many of his previous albums with Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, but Sebastopol sounds solid. More than that, it sounds right. BT |
|||
