Brighter Than Creation's Dark
Hailed by fans as a return to the true grit of their form, *Brighter Than Creation\'s Dark* boasts some of Drive-By Truckers\' best songwriting to date. This was not expected, partly because guitar player and co-songwriter Jason Isbell quit the band in the spring of 2007. New full-time member Jon Neff rounds out the sound with his own tone, his pedal steel helping to unravel a gripping ghost story on \"Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife,\" the album\'s opener. \"The Righteous Path\" is a fist-pumping country rocker that unapologetically leans hard on a heavily distorted Crazy Horse crunch, sounding like the bastard child of Neil Young\'s \"Rockin\' In The Free World.\" But the urgency behind Patterson Hood\'s voice and the story of a regular American guy trying to hold together the pieces of a crumbling patriotic ideal make this one an apt sequel to Young\'s 1989 anthem. \"The Purgatory Line\" is a haunting, slowing pulse of a song where bass player Shona Tucker coos like a heartbroken and heavy-lidded Neko Case.
Following the departure of Jason Isbell, Drive-By Truckers' remaining primary songwriters, Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, offer a brilliant study in duality, as-- seemingly in conversation with one another-- they weigh the respective pulls of decadence and dependability.
As a collection of songs, Brighter Than Creation's Dark ranks among Drive-By Truckers' best, even though there are a couple of skippable tracks. Digested all at once, though, this 19-song behemoth offers an even more inviting sprawl, with silly throwaways like the jokey gay character study "Bob" and poker-faced…
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This is a sporadically brilliant effort by an exceptional band whose reach still sometimes exceeds their grasp.