For better or worse, the career trajectory of North Carolina’s The Avett Brothers has been an interesting one to follow. After developing a reputation as a raw, emotions-on-their-sleeves, highly energetic folk group, the Avett Brothers joined forces with mega-producer Rick Rubin starting with 2009’s I and Love and You. Since then, the Avett’s have been experimenting with more instrumentation (such as electric instruments and keyboards) and getting progressively poppier with their song structures and singles selections. This culminated in last year’s Closer Than Together, an album that the Avett Brothers stated was the closest approximation to a sociopolitical album that they would do. The result was a collection of well-intentioned and perhaps too earnest misfires and the album proved to be polarizing. Whether in direct response to a tepid reaction or a pure statement of where they are in their lives, the Avett’s have decided to go back to basics for a continuation of their stripped down, not-quite-EP-not-quite-LP series (and the first since 2008) with The Third Gleam.
Consistent with their more recent output, The Third Gleam is a collection of contemplative songs featuring plenty of familiar themes that The Avett Brothers regularly explore, such as regret, spirituality, death, and the search for meaning in life. As previously mentioned, the band has gone back to basics with an all-acoustic album featuring only brothers Scott and Seth alongside longtime bassist Bob Crawford. Though the documentary May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers showed that one brother’s lead vocal performance may not be indicative of who wrote the lyrics, the MVP of The Third Gleam is certainly older brother Scott, whose lead-vocal songs deliver the most profound moments of the album.
One of the highlights of the album is “Untitled #4,” a song that features dual acoustic guitars before giving way to great bass work from Crawford and simple, but effective knee-slap percussion. Lyrically, the song is Scott’s exploration of the things important to him in life. It’s a journey of self-actualization, with Scott coming to the realization that “I am happy being me the most/when I let what makes me happy go” before repeating the recurring statement of the song, “I am happier with nothing.” It is classic Avett Brothers: contemplative almost in-the-moment exploration of complex philosophical and existential realizations that ooze with authenticity.
Another major theme, and perhaps appropriately for The Gleam, is finding the light in the darkest times. While it is present in multiple songs, it’s most literal in “Back Into The Light,” a song about stepping outside of personal shadows. It’s also perhaps the most intricate song musically, with the addition of some piano and a lovely classical guitar solo. Another highlight includes “Prison to Heaven,” a vocally harmonized and fun, bouncy song where the Avetts really get show their witty side, complete with non-rhythmic, wonderfully shoe-horned vocal lines about going from “prison” (perhaps serving as a proxy for life on Earth?) to Heaven and their worthiness for entry being questioned.
If there are any weak spots on the album, it’s a pair of Seth-led songs “I Should’ve Spent the Day with My Family” and “Women Like You.” Though they are vocally flawless and musically catchy, they leave a lot to be desired lyrically. The former is a narrative based song that echoes anti-gun violence sentiment seen in Closer Than Together. In it, Seth tells a narrative of hearing about another shooting where a child was killed that “looked an awful lot like mine.” Seth describes trying to carry out the day as usual, lamenting the fact that he should have instead spent it with his family. It’s a song that has a fine sentiment behind it but fails to make much of a profound statement. The latter is an admittedly well-intentioned love story towards his wife but features lyrical passages that may come off as more shallow, reductive and outdated than he likely intended.
Redemption is found, however, in the album’s closer “The Fire.” Clocking in at over six minutes long and continuing with the metaphoric light-in-darkness theme, Seth serves as a narrator asking several perspectives from several walks of life the interpretive question of, “what do you see in the fire?” with a fantastic matching melody on guitar. It’s a beautiful song, featuring a single guitar and banjo (and eventually a haunting piano) sprawling themes of optimism, regret, uncertainty and acceptance. Quite simply, it’s a wonderful and truly fitting album capper.
At their best, The Avett Brothers are transcendent songwriters with the ability to cut right to the soul while delivering perfect musical harmony. The majority of The Third Gleam serves as a reminder of the best qualities that The Avett Brothers can bring. They may not know, nor do they pretend to know, the answers to the lofty questions they ponder, but they make sense of the world and these questions through musical catharsis and discover answers that satisfy themselves along the way. In this edition of The Gleam, that quality truly shines through.
