Rating: 8/10
Driving guitars start off the new Jason Isbell song, and it immediately sets the mood. If you were expecting more of the acoustic-driven tracks you got from his last two albums, think again with this particular song, at least. I think this is a very welcome change. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Something More than Free and Southeastern. However, this change back to more rock songs is awesome. It’s fast, quick, and it catches you right away.
Now we get to the lyrics. Some of these seem fairly autobiographical, with him saying things like he’s sang enough about himself and he’s sick of the white man’s blues. The overall message I get from this song is that he’s over the negativity, and he wants to be happy. Included in this is the fact that he wants some vague person he mentions in the lyrics to find a world in which they want to live in, and to not be tired and angry.
After hearing this song, I’m interested to see what the rest of this album holds in store. I fully admit that I have yet to check out his first few records, but I’m a definite fan of Isbell and his music. If the other songs on The Nashville Sound are similar to this musically, I’ll be happy.
See, this is why I like different perspectives. Because honestly, I liked this song better before I listened to it more. When I first listened, well you know how I felt because we talked about it, but for everyone else, the sound really got to me, and I quite liked it. I still think it’s solid, but the vagueness you mention in the lyrics has started to irritate me. And I don’t know if it’s fair, but it irritates me because Jason Isbell is a much better writer. So, it’s not bad, but it’s not really up to his standards lyrically. Probably a 6.5 to 7 for me if I had to rate it, but I think it may be better or worse in the context of the album. Still really happy with the sound though.
The vagueness is definitely what brought this song down for me. I do agree he’s better at writing than this, but I like the sound a whole lot.