Review: Son Volt – American Central Dust

November 11th, 2009

Whereas the first couple albums by Son Volt Mk. 2 were known to feature horns, droning streams of consciousness, and Beatlesesque backwards guitar loops, the credits for their latest, American Central Dust betray the return-to-roots approach with violin and three members employing one incarnation or another of the steel guitar. Jay Farrar & Co. haven’t completely abandoned the fuller, more expansive sound of the past few years but have instead created one which is a palimpsest allowing the ragged alt-country of their first albums to sit comfortably with the more indie rock direction of late.

Fans of the band will easily pick up on the Son Volt touchstones. The country shuffles “Roll On” and “Dust of Daylight” bring classics like “Creosote” to mind while the jangly “No Turning Back” recalls The Byrds and “Back Into Your World”. But not every minute here is dedicated to retreading the alt-country glory days. A fuzzy electric piano trades licks with lap steel over a groove on “Down To the Wire” while a sludgy guitar mirrors the post-fossil fuel industrial mire of Farrar’s lyrics in “When the Wheels Don’t Move”.

Lyrically, Farrar covers familiar ground with the little guy pitted against cold, calculating corporations and, more generally, the tribulations of just getting by. He also continues his tradition of dotting the lyrics with references to flyover country with St. Louis and New Orleans each getting multiple references while “Sultana” is a doleful look back at the steamboat which sank in the Mississippi River in the waning days of the Civil War.

Son Volt’s sound has always a ragged quality but it is especially exaggerated here. The tempos vary from slow to medium and never venture into a time signature that your grandparents would have a hard time keeping up with. The fatalistic eavesdropping into the mind of Rolling Stone Keith Richards (“Cocaine and Ashes”) is suitably measured but even the more upbeat songs like “Jukebox of Steel” seem tempered by a world-weariness. In 2005, Farrar could sing about the ability of music to warm the soul, but in 2009, he can only lament the “intrigues of the new royalty” and the people who are “Still pawns playing out the legacy/ Of long dead industry titans and haters of men”. Perhaps American Central Dust reflects the current recession a bit too closely.

Related posts:

1. Son Volt's American Central Dust Due in July
2. Son Volt Interview, etc.
3. Son Volt Samples
4. New Son Volt Album on the Horizon
5. Son Volt News – April '06