The Drive : Releases >>
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Countrified >>
Brighter Than Creations Dark >>
Southern Rock Opera >>
You don't need a bottle of Jack or even a trace of Southern lineage to appreciate the genius of Drive-By Truckers' Southern Rock Opera. Without a hint of irony, the Athens, Georgia, quintet creates a fast-driving, hard-living tribute to the indelible music and legacy of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Like any good concept album, there's a modicum of plot and a theme to these 20 songs (loosely based around the rise and fall of fictitious Southern rock band Betamax Guillotine), but the best tracks make you forget the story line altogether: "Birmingham," "Zip City," and "Let There Be Rock." The "opera" aspects bog things down a bit--you probably only need to hear the spoken-word track "The Three Great Alabama Icons" once--but the overall concept still comes off without a hitch. The lyrics are great, the trio of electric guitars is blessed with raw production, and the tunes--though lacking the pop sensibility of, say, "Gimme Three Steps"--will have you cranking up the album for your friends. And, after a few spins of Southern Rock Opera, you might even find yourself digging out those old Skynyrd LPs to hear the real thing again. --Jason Verlinde
A Blessing and a Curse >>
Known for two big-idea concept albums, Southern Rock Opera (dedicated to Lynyrd Skynyrd) and The Dirty South (a 70+ minute exploration of their Alabama roots), the Drive-by Truckers here go economical with a 45+ minute rock album. Three singers (all guitarists, to boot) ensure that moods shift often, even with every voice bearing a sand-blasted quality that grit-pocks everything. Patterson Hood tackles most of the tunes, sounding like a roughed-up Faces on "Aftermath USA," detailing drugs and deterioration against boogied-up guitars, and sounding a more sensitive side on "Goodbye" and "Little Bonnie" (another in a line of Truckers' funeral tunes). With a barrel-chested croak of a voice, Mike Cooley runs down the rudderless-ness of love and desperation on "Gravity's Gone" and slow, acoustic tenderness on "Space City." The loudest guitarist, Jason Isbell, takes on two tracks: "Easy on Yourself" and "Daylight," where he alternates between wry fury and a yearning pine for more time, more space. Isbell basks in an array of slide-guitar throwdowns, always leaving a signature sound the way Skynyrd's Allen Collins and Gary Rossington did in their glory days. All in all, this is a calmer Truckers set, less ragged and more polished--but rest assured: Their live sets still smoke like their 40 Watt Club DVD from 2005. --Andrew Bartlett
Seven Second Surgery >>
Daylight is Coming >>
Horizons >>
Wires...and the Concept of Breathing >>
Relationship Of Command >>
Moon Is The New Earth >>
