Weathervanes

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

explicit

Released on 6/9/23 by Southeastern Records
Main artists: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Genre: Rock

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Jason Isbell certainly knows about the elation that comes from success and validation. He has yet to stumble in a solo career that began in 2007, a kind of roll most musicians only dream of. But on Weathervanes, his first album of originals since 2020's just-as-the-pandemic-struck Reunions, Isbell returns to examining what he calls "boundaries" and the sticky riddle of how to "keep the ability to love somebody fully and completely while you're growing into an adult and learning how to love yourself." An expressive vocalist who's at his best singing his own songs (the mark of all great songwriters), Isbell is one of the craftiest, most honest songwriters working today. His genius lies in his ability to mix troubled tales of sharp-eyed realism with a fascination for humanity's cruelty, regret, and redemption. As a master lyricist, he can open this record with a raw tune like "Death Wish," because of couplets like, "Did you ever love a woman with a death wish/ Something in her eyes like flipping off a light switch" and "Who's gonna save you, who's left to pray to/ What's the difference in a breakdown and a breakthrough?"

While he has a poet's eye for details like "thick cut bacon on Texas toast" and "Got square-toed boots so he ain't for real/ Wouldn't last five minutes on a pedal steel" ("Strawberry Woman"), his storytelling succeeds because of the grace with which he encapsulates emotional quagmires as he does in the nervous brushes-on-cymbals hymn "If You Insist": "We're running out of options/ I'll wait outside the door/ If you insist on being lonely/ I might wait a minute more." Occasionally, there's even a touch of humor as in the opening lines of "Cast Iron Skillet": "Don't wash the cast iron skillet/ Don't drink and drive, you'll spill it." Given his rising celebrityhood it's not surprising the film business would come calling; Isbell has a part in Martin Scorsese's latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon. Watching the director gave the songwriter a new vision for collaboration, and here his co-producing partnership with Matt Pence (Centro-matic, Justin Townes Earle, Elle King) resulted in a sound that is full and rich without surrendering to excessive loudness. His sensitive, well-oiled band the 400 Unit, with stalwarts Derry deBorja (keyboards) and Sadler Vaden (guitar), ably add atmosphere and support Isbell throughout but especially on electrified rockers like the pounding "When We Were Close" and "This Ain't It," the latter echoing '70s Southern rock by way of the Marshall Tucker Band. Listen closely, Isbell's artistry continues. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

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Weathervanes

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

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Death Wish