[rating=8.00]
As founding members of Drive-By Truckers and long before that, as songwriting foils and kindred spirits amongst the Georgia and Alabama musical scenes, Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, circa 2014, are survivors. Together, they’ve logged countless miles in planes, vans and buses, traded inordinate amounts of Jack Daniels swigs from the famous brown bottle, and have been the two constants in the ever-evolving cast of characters that have graced their stages and recording studios over the course of the last decade and a half. The recent past has been as eventful as ever for the band, with dramatic personnel departures altering the sonic composition and writing structure, and the grind of the road sending operations to a temporary halt. So, it’s certainly fitting that English Oceans, DBT’s 12th studio album, finds Hood and Cooley standing alone as bandleaders, trading songs and guitar leads while seemingly finding solace and acceptance in their professional harmony.
Banged out in a mere 13 days, English Oceans benefits from its’ less-is-more approach. There’s little in the way of ornamentation or experimentalism, instead Hood and Cooley- here joined by multi-instrumentalist Jay Gonzalez, bassist Matt Patton, and longtime drummer Brad “Easy B” Morgan-keep the proceedings taut and focused. There’s a lot of Stones swagger, with lead cut “Shit Shot Happens”-complete with a horn-laden outro-a dead ringer for an Exile-era lost track and “Hearing Jimmy Loud”, sequenced later, a stand-in for the punchy Keith and Ron Wood guitar licks highlighted on mid-period albums like Tattoo You.
The band also spreads its’ wings a bit and fires off an appropriate rendition of their gloriously sprawling live show with the six-and-a-half minute “Pauline Hawkins” and the album-closing elegy to departed friend and confidante Craig Lieske, “Grand Canyon”. In these two tracks, the musical procession reaches high, sputters forth, and nearly stops, before exploding again in a squally procession of noise. “Grand Canyon”, in particular, serves as a catharsis for the band and will surely be highlighted as an emotional set closer for the upcoming tour. Elsewhere, there’s a slight void here and there in some of the dialed back numbers that could use the little hints of pedal steel that emanated from a certain past member’s contributions, but by and large, the album sounds great and reflects the mindset of the current incarnation.
Lyrically, as always, there’s a novelist’s eye for detail and a keen sense of subtle wordplay and turns of phrase. Hood and Cooley pay their usual attention towards the doings and happenings of small-town squabbles, washed-out dreamers, and drifters and grifters with nebulous intentions. What sets this album apart from their others, though, is the sheer balance of the song assignments and the complete home run hit by Mike Cooley. Minus a third singer-songwriter, his output is at an all-time high, and he definitely takes advantage of the opportunity by producing some of his most remarkable work yet.
Always quotable and an expert at mining the humanity and intelligence that often hides beneath the gruff exterior of perceived simpletons, Cooley owns the album’s strongest moments-his simple and perfectly executed “Primer Coat” being an early contender for a 2014 “Best-of” mix-and rifles off instantly quotable lines that demand repeated listens, such as a sadly pathetic friend describing his old lady, (“She had a tanning habit/She’s like a walking leather couch/Warm beneath the cushions where she hid whatever treasure fell out”), or the sinister intentions of no-good political operative describing his target constituents, (“6×9 and counting down in one after the other/They’ll go running up and down the road, angry as their mothers”). He even takes the lead on the Hood-penned “Till He’s Dead or Rises”, a DBT historical first. Hood, for his part, turns in a set of songs befitting of his usual stellar output, but with the exception of the aforementioned “Grand Canyon”, it’s Cooley’s tunes that’ll most resonate when the album has finished spinning.
There are no bad Drive-By Truckers albums. Some, like Southern Rock Opera and Decoration Day are undisputed classics, while others like A Blessing and a Curse and Go Go Boots still hold up strongly, despite wading through some rough patches along the way. English Oceans slots in nicely in the upper register of the band’s catalog, significant as an affirmation of the long-lasting partnership between two great friends and songwriters who remain joined in vision and dedicated to the DBT legacy. Along with Gonzalez, Patton, and their trusty cohort Morgan, they’ll be back out pounding the pavement throughout the rest of the year, bringing their joyful noise and colorful temperaments out to adoring audiences around the globe. Fortunately, they seem to know no other way.
