CD review

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS

Brighter than Creation's Dark

by RICK KANE

IF rock'n'roll is dying, as we often hear, then someone obviously hasn't told the Drive-By Truckers. Their latest, Brighter than Creation's Dark, is another rich and plentiful offering from a band who well understands what is best about rock music. There are 19 songs and hardly a dud in the bunch. Back in 1974 Springsteen may have been called the future of rock'n'roll but in 2008 DBT carry that torch with spunk and derring-do.

What they have is water tight - three hard driving guitars playing across a muted dancing bass and drums patterns so simple and catchy it's like you already know them. Spooner Oldham, no less, thumps and tickles various organs and piano and then there's fiddle, pedal steel and lap steel to accompany this disparate set of tunes. Straight forward you would think, but this sound is the core strength of the band. Witness the full band assault jamming on Home Field Advantage, which segues into a country jazz syncopation on The Opening Act.

DBT have always been literate beyond their years and the genres they work within. Paterson Hood and Mike Cooley are the main songwriters. Paterson has always received the most acclaim but there is a strong argument for Mike's contribution being on par or better on this outing. The album title comes from his song, Checkout Time in Vegas which also has one of the wittiest throwaways on the record: "It aint true that the sun don't rise in Vegas ... I've seen it once".

The second core strength of the DBT and this album is the song writing. Between the two of them (there are three contributions from bass player, Shonna Tucker) they cover a gamut of scenarios, characters and philosophical questioning. "Daddy needs a drink to calm down the badness, to execute his gladness on the fullness of his cup" from Daddy Needs a Drink and "Started out down at the junk yard taking orders from a moron, and a man my size don't like taking orders from anyone" from Goode's Field Road or "I used to hate the fool in me, but only in the morning, now I tolerate him all day long" from Perfect Timing could all be snapshots of the same character and in a way they are.

DBT sketch 'Everyman' from many an angle, perspective and circumstance. In doing so they reveal much that is similar between us all and at the same time highlight the essential differences that make our individual journeys so interesting and fraught. This is best captured in the song, The Righteous Path with lines like "trying to hold steady on the righteous path, 80 miles an hour with a worn out map". (Incidentally, there is a nod in these lines to another of the great current rock bands, The Hold Steady).

On the last song Monument Valley, which references the best of film Westerns (and American story-telling) when Patterson Hood sings "It's where to plant the camera and when to say action, when to print the legend and when to leave the facts in" he not only connects with a great strand of the American story but also all but explains to his audience how to tell a story.

All of this would be enough but DBT have another great strength in three compelling lead singers. Patterson's weather-worn style is one great rock voice and Mike Cooley, with his old-timey country baritone, is developing into a very assured singer. With the addition of the female voice in bass player Shonna Tucker the sounds to sing those simple but curious tales of America struggling has been taken into new directions.

Wrapped together, DBT strengths on this album pulsates a primeval energy that is old as the electric guitar and as fresh as the looping and effecting on You and Your Crystal Meth. As familiar as the album immediately sounds, it is the strange, just off-centre feelings it evokes and evinces that draws you further still into its alluring yet haunting places. This will be one of the talked about records through the year.

5 February 2008

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CD review DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS Brighter than Creation's Dark

CD review

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS

Brighter than Creation's Dark