Two albums that will get you reaching for your headphones
Best known as Lucinda Williams’ lead guitarist and for producing albums for Laura Marling, Jay Z and Randy Newman, Blake Mills continues to surprise with the release of his fourth solo album Mutable Set.
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Best known as Lucinda Williams’ lead guitarist and for producing some top albums for the likes of Laura Marling, Jay Z and Randy Newman, Blake Mills continues to surprise with the release of his fourth solo album Mutable Set.
Gone are the country tinged songs of 2014’s Heigh Ho with guitar breaks taking them off in unexpected directions. Instead the new offering of 11 tracks features his distinctive vocals accompanied by layered synths, simple acoustic guitar or ukulele and sparse but resounding bass percussion.
Mills has a voice with that seductive quality that inveigles its way into your brain like a Harry Nilsson or Chet Baker, and in fact Nilsson is the singer who comes to mind when listening to tracks like the opener Never Forever and May Later which follows.
Mills partnered with his friend Cass McCombs for some of the songs. The soundscape is full of subtleties – Mills can justly be described as a sonic painter – as instruments drift in and out with a dab of background harmonies here and a melodic bass riff there.
The pace rarely gets above a gentle canter, but Money Is The One True God has a jogging bass-driven riff behind the world weary lyrics “God is the bread of the underfed and the bread of the overpaid”.
One of the standout tracks is Vanishing Twin (video) with its gently pulsing synth accompaniment.
Farsickness summons up the spacey nuanced atmosphere of Talk Talk’s Spirit Of Eden while the instrumental Mirror Box strikes a seductive French mood with its catchy acoustic guitar solo.
The end of the album takes on a cool Chet Baker dreamy jazz feel with Window Facing A Window and its artful chord changes, while the closer Off Grid brings the collection to a slightly disjointed and unsettling end with Mills’ final words “need I say more?”.
Mutable Set, with its thoughtful lyrics, Mills’ irresistible musical ideas and its sense of general introspection is the perfect album for these times and it has certainly been on high rotation on my headphones during the prolonged stay at home period.
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Southern country-folk rocker Jason Isbell is joined by his band the 400 Unit for his latest release, Reunions, which features 10 songs which all show why this Grammy-winning musician from Alabama is considered one of the best songwriters around today.
Backed by his wife Amanda Shires in violin and vocals, and longstanding bandmates Derry deBorja (keys), Chad Gamble (drums), Jimbo Hart (bass) and Sadler Vaden (guitar), it also includes background vocals from special guests David Crosby, of Crosby, Stills and Nash, and Jay Buchanan (Rival Sons).
It gets off to a strong start with the confessional What Have I Done To Help. Only Children is one of Isbell’s gorgeous acoustic based songs about growing up, writing first songs, blowing all his savings on a demo tape and River seems to be a metaphor for a spiritual being which has helped him get through hardships.
Overseas sees Isbell dealing with success and life on the road conflicting with family considerations – not being able to leave a father on his own, dealing with a wife and daughter and their needs and how their love won’t change.
St Peter’s Autograph is one of the quieter tracks and Shires’s violin opens It Gets Easier – one of the many songs which deal with Isbell’s troubled younger life and “appetites”. The chorus sums it up: “Last night I dreamed I was drinking – it gets easier but it never gets easy”.
The album closes with the love acoustic track Letting You Go, a love story about parenthood and having a daughter. “Being your daddy comes natural, roses just know how to grow, it’s easy to see that you’ll get where you’re going but the hard part is letting you go”. I think all parents will relate to that.