IN REVIEW: Drive-By Truckers - "The Unraveling"

Drive-By Truckers have long been a band that's never shied away from holding a mirror to America's dark corners. While their star was on the rise, they were releasing album after album chronicling the seedier side of their southern upbringings, calling out demons of both personal and political natures. Their most notable run during this time was the trio of stellar albums they released between 2001 and 2004; Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day and The Dirty South captured all that was great and terrible about life in the southern states in a way that no other band could, and they developed a well-earned following for their efforts.

In the time since that well-received trilogy, DBT slowly expanded their outlook to a national scale and, with the widely hailed American Band in 2016, they were able to finally translate their small town political/personal tales into older, wiser, bigger ruminations that resonated country-wide. That the record was released mere weeks before the 2016 election perhaps made the record feel more poignant than it was at the time, but one can't deny that the time was right for a record like American Band.

A little more than three years later, Drive-By Truckers release their twelfth record into an America that isn't just worried about the possibility of a Trump-headed divided nation, but into an America that is living the nightmare in real time. Accordingly, these songs are more direct, frustrated and by times outright bitter than this band usually delivers. A cursory glance at Patterson Hood's liner notes reveals just how frightening the American reality has become and, though there is still hope at the core of the songs, Hood's anger and despair has never been so laid bare as it is on this record.

Musically, the band is as tight as ever (this same lineup has been intact longer than any previous iteration of the group), and the fact that most of the songs were recorded live off the floor in as little as one take serves as a testament to their playing power. The songs exhibit a loose, warm flair that feels more natural than much of their back catalog; not that they've ever been noted studio perfectionists or anything, but nothing on The Unraveling sounds fussed over or heavily overdubbed, which helps to make for a more or less accurate approximation of their formidable live show. It's also their shortest and most concise record to date at 9 songs and 42 minutes which, compared to some of their more sprawling past work, is a breeze to sit through.

All that said, my main gripe with The Unraveling is the diminished role of co-founder Mike Cooley; after splitting songwriting duties pretty evenly with Hood over the last two records, Cooley only gets two songs this time out. To be fair, Hood's on a roll here, and I can't say with certainty how many more songs Cooley brought to the sessions, but I can't help but feel like he's taking a back seat in this situation.

Nevertheless, The Unraveling is another strong record in the sometimes criminally underrated career of Drive-By Truckers, and one that feels like a warranted expansion on the themes of American Band now that Trump's dystopian hellscape is taking shape. By times it might be a little on the heavy-handed side, and its criticisms can feel close to bitter bumper sticker sloganeering here and there, but if DBT excelled at holding that mirror up to America's dark corners before, they're certainly well-equipped to mirror that darkness as it spreads to the centre of the room in the present day.

January 31, 2020 • ATO
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