The Daily Spin, April 14
The Civil Wars | Barton Hollow
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: Barton Hollow (2011)
Artist: The Civil Wars
Link:
For an album that, in many ways, doesn’t really do anything special with the actual music, I think Barton Hollow is perhaps the finest example of what lyrics can become and the story that can be interwoven with an album, intentionally or not.
The Civil Wars are no stranger to heartbreak, and their eventual separation that led to the death of the band is emblematic of this - but moreover, it seeps in through every aching chorus, through each sparse pluck of a bluegrass string, through each duet that mourns with equal fervor love not yet lost and love lost alike.
Somewhere between folk and country, somehow neither, Barton Hollow is desperate, aching, and painfully human. It will build you, break you, and devastate you, all with the pinpoint accuracy of love itself.
Rating: 8.6/10
Best Tracks: Poison & Wine; To Whom It May Concern; Falling; Dance Me to the End of Love
Worst Tracks: Birds of a Feather; The Violet Hour