Patterson Hood
Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams
***and1/2 out of *****
The fourth solo studio album from Patterson Hood is titled Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams and it continues his personal tales of odd occurrences and knack for effective story telling through ten songs. Some of the tunes are about Hood's childhood and were written in the 70's while others deal with adulthood and were written much more recently during the Covid lockdown.
Hood's main band, The Drive-By Truckers, take up the majority of his time so the album was recorded sporadically with multi-instrumentalist Chris Funk, at several locations in Georgia and Oregon. The opening "Exploding Trees" finds Hood playing piano for the first time on record as the light buzzing intro and bubbling sounds keep the listener in an uneasy place. Musically the album can recall The National as the low key unnerving vibe floats throughout while also bringing to mind Craig Finn's newest effort as both longtime story tellers have mixed up their backing sound with various degrees of success.
The best efforts on the album occur when Hood brings in a few guests. "The Forks of Cypress" is a solid tale as Waxahatchee comes onboard for duet with poetic lyrics while "A Werewolf and a Girl" is even better, reflecting back on a high school relationship via a cool eerie groove and excellent duetting vocals from Lydia Loveless. While Hood is clearly experimenting with instrumentation throughout the album, his most rock focused effort "The Van Pelt Parties" is a standout as Wednesday supports him in fine fashion.
Hood always finds song writing solace in tough times with eccentric characters and "Miss Coldiron's Oldsmobile" presents both in dour fashion. The overloaded "At Safe Distance" and the odd juxtaposition of pretty string laden music with flutes, clashing with the suicidal lyrics of "The Pool House" are misses, but Hood is not sitting still, trying new pairings that don't always mesh.
Better is the piano ballad crime story saga of "Last Hope" that builds with brass and swells in cinematic fashion while the easy rolling closer "Pinocchio" is a sweet and touching finale that deals with Hood's obsession with the Disney rendition of that fairy tale. Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams finds Patterson Hood stretching his sound and scope while continuing his strong lyrical tales.
________
Support the artist, buy the album and peep some video below:
No comments:
Post a Comment