When I showed up at Ohio University in rural southeast Ohio back in 2002, I was obsessed with Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. So of course the first band I fell in love with on campus was Southeast Engine, an indie roots rock band who counted Wilco as a foundational influence. (I heard a lot of Dylan and Bright Eyes in there too.) Their shows became must-see events for me over my years in Athens, OH, especially as the lineup evolved and their albums became more and more ambitious. Releases like 2005’s Coming To Terms With Gravity and 2007’s A Wheel Within A Wheel are instant nostalgia bombs for me; I still admire the way they combined traditional folk and country influences with artful arrangements and a hard-charging rock ‘n’ roll side that could be unleashed at any moment.

The band has been done for years now, but fortunately frontman Adam Remnant’s creative outflow has continued in fits and starts. (Really, that creativity has been constant, but sometimes he’s channeled it into photography instead of music.) Remnant returns today with Big Doors, his first album since his 2018 solo debut Sourwood. If anything I’ve said so far has piqued your interest, it’s well worth a listen.

Big Doors is billed as an album about disillusionment and unfulfilled promises — political, spiritual, et al — but, if you’ll forgive the hokey comment, it sounds to me like promise fulfilled. Remnant’s songwriting is in seasoned form here. He’s settled into his ragged tenor over the years; his voice has always been a powerful instrument, but what once could be construed as affect now comes across as lived-in grit. In the grand folksinger tradition, the character studies he spins are plainspoken but carefully crafted, relying more on powerful storytelling than writerly turns of phrase.

The flashier aspect of the album is the music, though similarly, its many gorgeous flourishes are never deployed in a way that feels especially showy. Remnant cites Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Jim O’Rourke’s Eureka as key inspirations for Big Doors. I hear that stuff in these songs, but in moments like the instrumental interlude “The Door Might Be Closed” and the subsequent title track, it also reminds me a lot of the sadder, softer moments of Flaming Lips’ The Soft Bulletin. It’s all so lush — the gauzy keyboards, the subtly wailing lead guitar lines — but in a way that lets the songs breathe and keeps the focus on Remnant’s narration. He and co-producer Jon Helm should be proud of what they’ve cooked up.

Stream Big Doors below, and buy it at Bandcamp.