Decoration Day - (New West)

The Drive-By Truckers had a lot on the line leading up to Decoration Day . Their epic Southern Rock Opera , due to its singular theme, ran the risk of being labeled a one-shot notion despite its being executed to perfection. That is, a great idea but can they follow up with something anywhere near as good?

Decoration Day is at least that.

Decoration Day is an extension of the "non-Skynyrd" part of Southern Rock Opera in some ways - a display of lifestyle an experience unique to the band themselves. Songwriters Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, and new member Jason Isabel write about what they know. What they experience and where they seek their inspiration are things that they are proficient in translating into song. It therefore become no surprise that a song like Isabel's "Outfit", a song written as a Father's Day gift to the senior Mr. Isabel, can be deeply affecting while the confused outrage of "Sink Hole" is told as if it's based on a personal experience rather than inspired by the short film "The Accountant".

It's this kind of conviction that convinces you that "rock and roll means well, but it can't help tellin' young boys lies" as Mike Cooley sings on the rocking "Marry Me" (this incidentally is by far the most often-quoted lyric I've heard this year - check out other reviews to see what I mean). In fact, one of Decoration Day 's greatest strengths is the economical nature of the lyrics the band writes. They're able to say more in one couplet than many can say in an entire song. In fact, whatever tragedy inspired "Careless" is summed up in a few sentences.

The characters that populate Decoration Day - like poor Annette left standing at the alter ("My Sweet Annette"), the couple that live with a "Loaded Gun In The Closet", or the feuding families of the title track - get the soundtrack they need for their stories by way of some often inspired arrangements. The band's three-guitar lineup is nowhere near as excessive as might be suggested. In fact, a gorgeous pedal steel may even bring the total up to four on a track like "Heathens", the most sweetly country sounding song here. In contrast, "Sounds Better In The Song" tones it down to solely acoustic instrumentation and it's hard to believe anything else could make the song more powerful. It's should be hard for the rhythm section to compete with Hood, Isabel, and Cooley on their guitars, but David Barbe's tasteful production keeps Brad Morgan's drums and Earl Hicks' bass in perfect line.

This is likely the dawn of a "new" Drive-By Truckers, entering the next phase of a career in which the first chapter ended with Southern Rock Opera . Decoration Day demonstrates that the band has the daring and talent to keep pushing themselves further, and has resulted in one of the very finest releases this year.

10.0