The Daily Spin, June 12
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit | Weathervanes
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: Weathervanes (2023)
Artist: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Link:
I’ve never been hugely into Isbell, though the man’s undeniably talented, with his work sitting just this site of the country divide for me to get too tied up in it, but this album finds itself squarely in that folk-americana crosshatch that functions a lot like catnip to me.
The best way I can describe this album is backing noise to a long pan road trip scene, the sort of thing you might hear fading to black over a West Texas highway, somber and hopeful all at once, a dizzying melancholy that will leave you holding onto emotions you weren’t all that sure you had.
I think the album excels when it pares itself down and relaxes a bit - even when the music itself puts the brakes on, it feels as though Isbell struggles with managing to accomplish the same, and it works to capture the heartbreak that often accompanies his slower tunes - take, for one, ‘Middle of the Morning’, a song that wobbles towards balladry while perfectly capturing the heartbreak and discomfort, all the while easing its way through with a plodding guitar and piano accompaniment.
I find myself wishing that there were a little more of that to this album - because when the record lets itself be unapologetic, it shines.
Rating: 7.8/10
Best Tracks: Middle of the Morning; King of Oklahoma
Worst Tracks: This Ain’t It