[rating=8.00]
For whatever Blitzen Trapper has accomplished — or failed to accomplish — in their prolific career, they’ve yet to connect with the wider audience they deserve. Perhaps it has something to do with the ambiguity of their handle, or their general refusal to be confined to any one genre. No matter. Wild and Reckless, its slapdash title aside, consolidates their approach like never before, plunking them down into a weary and yet rowdy Americana terrain, a scenario that ensures a more accessible sound. From the rampage of “Rebel” and the rousing, rambunctious “Dance With Me” to the slow sprawl of a song like “Joanna,” this is a band that’s digging in deeper. In so doing, they’re finding the hooks necessary to capture the attention they so decidedly deserve.
While Blitzen Trapper hasn’t ever been known as populist pundits per se, the new album does lean heavily towards that more emphatic embrace. As exemplified by the emphatic “No Man’s Land,” these are stadium size melodies, a set of songs that can encourage cell phones to be raised in unison and swayed in time for homage. There’s both defiance and determination at play here, not unlike the rallying cry that a Springsteen, a Mellencamp or a Willie Nile might share with their devoted flock. For all those moments when they seem to teeter at the abyss, the riveting refrains reel them back in.
Clearly then, Wild and Reckless marks a turning point for this journeyman outfit that for too long has struggled to reach the next tier. Whether it propels them to stardom — and by gosh, it ought to — or simply allows them to clearly find their footing, Wild and Reckless resonates in a way that only the most emphatic entries are capable of conveying. With this new effort, Blitzen Trapper have turned a corner and clearly it’s onward and upward from here
