I found a list of "road trip albums" and liked the cut of its jib, totally into the albums I know on there. Didn't know this one, which occupied miles 128-182 on the 5.
Fu Shnickens worked just fine through LA, but I found myself hating it through the rolling hills. This though, was perfect, perfect music for driving through the spaces North, as California shakes off the city and opens up its mighty breast to be anywhere America. The songs are bittersweet, straining, with a reedy low alto at the backbone, strums and skeletons and bristles - the melodies melt, it is all structure and texture. Elliot Smith (track 1), Nick Drake (track 3), The Decemberists (track 4) Okkervil River (track 9), Blitzen Trapper, and Songs: Ohia all make their DNA known in turn: the result is basically a really great, windblown, hopeful, mournful road trip mix that just happens to be the work of one man, making the entire thing hauntingly consistent.
The songs are a bit repetitive, but in a way that builds each verse on the last in haybale walls. And there's a slightly amateur, live feel to the whole thing that gives it scruffy charm. And a couple of the songs are just fucking amazing, the title track in particular is just a stunning piece of churning rock with a soul-bending chorus turnaround hook and ooo.
Maybe I just liked this because it was good for the time I heard it. Fair enough. Instant classic, in its own dusty simple way 4.5/5
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