We love us some Drive-By Truckers and their southern-fried opera-writing ways, but Brighter Than Creation’s Dark is longer than creation’s long. Maybe longer. By our estimation, they could’ve chopped about eight of the 19 tracks and still had themselves a solid, ambitious record (there are songs from Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and bassist Shonna Tucker, so we’re sure they could’ve whittled from each stash, though Shonna only contributed three). Much of the muck happens in the middle: Brighter opens and closes strong. That said, it’s definitely better, grittier than the underwhelming A Blessing And A Curse. (That, and they have a song called “You And Your Crystal Meth” on here.) Complaints aside, the quintet oiled the works some backing up Bettye, lost some blood when Jason Isbell moved, and sound particularly seasoned.
The beauts include the awesome ragged glory of “A Ghost To Most,” the rip roaring riffs of “The Man I Shot” (hey, Black Mountain and the Heartbreakers), and the fuzzy swamp-rocker “3 Dimes Down.” On a quieter tip, there’s the lovely, rising-action, rock ‘n’ roll-lifer ballad “The Opening Act,” which is painterly and patient in its depiction of its chewy, beer-soaked scenery conjured with male/female harmonies, a Technicolor sunset, and lines like “There’s all this beauty and just enough time to figure out how to destroy it.” Love its spoken word line about the fat man who falls off the mechanical bull, the paramedics hauling off the “urban bovine Knieval” (R.I.P., dude). There’s pretty pedal steel on the whole album, but especially on this seven-minute track. Or how’s about the classic country of “Lisa’s Birthday” and it’s socialite dissing, and “y’all”‘s? We’re also big fans of previously discussed Shonna twanging “I’m Sorry Houston” and the also aforementioned shit-kicker “The Righteous Path.” Stay focused, Truckers.
A few tunes are boring, but the brief character study “Bob” is just sort of dumb. One of us laughed out loud at the “He ain’t light in the loafers” line that drifts into the repeated chorus: “He might kneel, but he never bends over.” Uhh… So, Robert ain’t exactly scared of women, he’s just got his own way of living. A sketch of a southern asexual? He hangs with his dogs and his ma, but he ain’t gay. So? That said, we do like that it’s followed by Shonna’s “Home Field Advantage” and its echo of “playing for the home team.” Outside of that, the latter also has a kick-ass rock-out exeunt.
Speaking of that sort of overlap — we read somewhere that the band didn’t intend for the album to be so long, that they felt it was interconnected as one larger work, found it hard to trim. “Brighter than creation’s dark” shows up as a line from Cooley-penned “Checkout Time In Vegas,” which opens with the laundry list of “bloody nose, empty pockets, rented car, a trunk full of guns” (a typical weekend around here). Hard to know what the entire narrative of the overall setlist adds up to … There are a couple mention of “Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife,” the numbing affects of technology, drinking and drugging (“Daddy Needs A Drink” is great, btw), beauty and madness, the dawn of grunge, the comforts and non-comforts of home, self-destructive tendencies (like riding off into “The Monument Valley” solo). So is it a personal history? Those are hard to whittle down, but maybe you should’ve tried a bit harder, gang, because it would’ve made the gold shine even brighter.
Brighter Than Creation’s Dark is out 1/22 on New West.
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Just out of curiosity, but why isn’t there an Old 97′s faction here at the gum? Same record label (New West), same genre…Does anyone listen to those alt.country boys?
Hmmm, let’s see…maybe because the Old 97′s suck?
The Drive By Truckers are one of the best bands in America – so only a few mediocre tracks outta 19 sounds like good news to me.
Wow, what an intelligent answer! I better get to burning their records in my backyard right now.
Actually, this is one of their best albums yet. Sorry, Stereogum — you missed the point on this one.
One of dbt’s best, not a filler cut on it.
there’s at least 3-4 filler tracks, Stereogum is right.
the lyrics to Bob, Lisa’s Birthday, & You and Your Crystal Meth are both terrible, especially the lyrics to Bob. sorry, not a big fan of lyrics with a hint of homophobia.
How is singing about a character “homophobia”?
I think the real problem is the Drive By Truckers are underrated on all these blogs because Pitchfork and the like cater to this new kind of feminine indie sound, which is widely received by urban males with no real identity and the readers can’t handle the masculinity of a band like the Drive By Truckers.
“ew…it’s got a southern accent and rocks…where’s my Of Montreal record and my Urban Outfitters gift card?”
why homophobia?
Bob is just a good ole’ fashioned slice of life. we all know a Bob.
i’m sorry, but the lyric “Bob ain’t light in the loafers, he might kneel but he never bends over” line is retarded, sorry if you don’t see it as such.
I just don’t see a filler track on the album. While there are a couple that take time to grow on you, they can quickly turn into your favorites as well.
And while some will always complain about a long album, I can never get too much great music, and that’s exactly what this album is, great music from a great band.
Venus -
You claim that the lyrics to Bob are offensive, then you use the term “retarded”. You are a moron.
I’m afraid that the “my inner child” bullshit from Of Montreal and In Rainbows has turned most urban males into little whimps. It’s partly why the Truckers get no credit from the blogs that perpetuate this male urban to feminine transition.
If you want to feel sorry for yourself and mope in your own juices, go listen to “Videotape”.
I’ll take the highway and the Drive By Truckers.
I find Brighter Than Creation’s Dark more than just another CD
in the Drive By Truckers lexicon of the South, it is another
chapter in the continuing rock opera that depicts and wraps
itself around the life of being Southern, and in many cases
simply being alive in the working, living world.
This CD is a narrative no matter how it may sway or lag
in parts, it is a narrative complete with churning rockers,
country and southern blues, Patsy Cline in the 21st century as in
“Purgatory Line”.
I do understand the Old 97 relation but I think that the more
relevant set of relations would be of course Blue Cheer, Lynyrd Skynyrd,Waylon Jennings, Don Chambers +Goat, Blackfoot,
Merle Haggard, Patsy Cline, Rolling Stones, Gram Parsons,
Shooter Jennings, and aside from that you have the heart and voices of
of Patterson and Cooley building on their own rich histories
of growing up in the South and kids in love with rock and roll
AND country music. The three offerings from Shoona almost
play a Patsy Cline to Cooley’s Waylon Jennings, a Loretta Lynn
to Patterson’s happy demon in leather and jeans Van Zandt.
The slide and steel work from John Neff is outstanding to say the
least and it is here that this guy is really moving into a more
dominant place by pure strength of mastering the instruments
as the song itself. EZB is forever himself kicking in beats
with a force that equals Max Weinberg live with the Boss.
Spooner Oldham is testament alone that the Drive By Truckers really
do mean business as a band for the people, as a people’s band
that believes rock and roll did not die after Exile On Main Street
or Second Helping, that rock and roll as the soundtrack to the
life lived from the heart is alive and well.
Brighter Than Creation’s Dark grows on you with
repeated listens. I know this can sound trite, but it really
does grow. And come on, if we were to hold all rock
songs to the test of freshman english class studies
like those shown here about “Bob” then I guess way
back there would have never been a “whole lot of shakin
going on” or even more an “Adam Raised A Cain”.
BTCD is a four and after a while maybe even a five
star album.
“he might kneel but he never bends over” –
come on everyone — lets give cooley some credit… sorry to rain on the homophobe parade, but can your tiny minds toy with the idea that this isn’t a strict sexual reference — and certainly not a homophobic one?
kneeling a reference to prayer, and bending over — well yes a reference to getting f-ed…. but together, the idea that bob might be humbled by god but f-ed by no other isnt really a homophobic lyric….
kneeling and bending over — both sorta submissive positions…. submissive to god/not so submissive to people….
think about about — when i lose at the track, i often say “I got bent over” — or in court when I lose: “she really bent me over” — sorta graphic… sure — but not homophobic…
i dont know… learn about the drive-by truckers before you all start assuming theyre out there writing hate songs…
This album can not be contended with. It is the greatest record since Appetite for Destruction.
I like the Drive By Truckers a lot. These comments on both sides are idiotic. “Feminine indie sound”? The central figure in a charchter study is homophobic so therefore the lyricist must be? I don’t know which one of you is more offensive.
sitcom, in case you’re not aware, “light in the loafers” is phrase that means gay…
and as great as this record is, sorry dudes, but it doesn’t touch TDS, Decoration Day, or even SRO (which while long, was at least split into 2 discs)
as for “learn about them”, the first time i saw DBT was in 1998
i’d take Isbell’s solo album over this
re: homophobic.
would never claim Cooley is homophobic, but that line coming from a band from the South is just asking for scrutiny honestly. not saying they’ve never been a band to shy away from controversy, it just seems SOOO cliche and tired out to me.
the lyrics to that song are awful even despite that line, thankfully it’s 2 min long.
I hold that this is an album requiring repeated listens.
Dirty South and Southern Rock Opera are masterpieces
in their own right, but if Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
is put in as a chapter (with three narrators) in the musical book
that is The Drive By Truckers then it really does stand as
something of a beautiful rock and roll country blues statement.
Southern Rock. These are the guys to do it.
i saw them perform all 19 tracks in athens the other night and it was seriously mind blowing
i dont think they have made a better record
Enough with the Cooley homophobic BS. The man is an amazing songwriter. To quote him, “It don’t mean shit”.
Trust me Cooley is NO homophobe.
P.S. Bob loves DBT, Of Montreal AND Rainbows.
I have to disagree with the complaints that this record is “too long”. That’s like a car that goes too fast, or, even, bluegrass with too much banjo !
And, the statement that it’s a grower…hell no, y’all, it’s the turgid embodiment of everything that’s good about DBT’s music !
Lisa’s Birthday’s lyrics are great. Go fist your rectums if you think otherwise, you twinkle toes.