Record Review: A Blessing and A Curse

With the release of a new record comes anticipation and expectation. Many times the anticipation and expectation are so great that no matter how great the album may be, it can’t live up to one’s preconceived expectations. On very rare occasions the album lives up to the hype. The Drive-By Truckers sixth album “A Blessing and A Curse” is one such album. “Blessing” is an album setup to fail under the expectation brought by the Truckers previous albums “Southern Rock Opera,” “Decoration Day,” and “The Dirty South.” What band has made four albums in a row of such high quality? The Stones did it with Beggars-Let It Bleed-Sticky Fingers-Exile. Zeppelin did it with their first four. Uncle Tupelo? Their four albums are considered great by many, well by me anyways. Other then that there aren’t many others.

The Truckers have succeeded by not sticking with what worked before. While “Blessing” does have the duality of life theme, which is present in earlier albums, it’s not done with songs set in the south or told by stories of southern mythology.

The album opens with Patterson Hood’s Feb. 14, an anti Valentines Day song of sorts and proceeds with Mike Cooleys’ Gravity’s Gone, which imparts wisdom like only Cooley can:

And don't ever let them make you feel like saying what you want is unbecoming
If you were supposed to watch you're mouth all the time I doubt you're eyes would be above it

Next up is Jason Isbell’s “Easy on Yourself” which reminds us not to let life just pass us by or

Ten years down the road you'll find you're left behind. You're left behind.

Hood’s “Aftermath USA” is up next, a Stones/Faces workout about the morning after it all goes wrong. “Goodbye” follows with the lament of friendships/relationships that end without even being realized.

“Daylight” is an Isbell song that will either be loved or hated. It’s defiantly not something you’d expect to hear on a Truckers album, more of a southern soul type song with Jason trying to hit the high notes. It’s refreshing to the Truckers do a song like this one.

“Wednesday” is another Hood rocker followed by “Little Bonnie” song about the untimely death of a young girl. “Space City”, a Cooley song about a man dealing with the death of his wife. The title track follows and asks:

Is that how you're gonna write your story?
Down in your time as a high-flying flame out?
Sucking on what's left of your trust fund?
Sucking on the end of a shot gun?

“A World of Hurt” closes the album perfectly by tying all the previous songs of dispair together by saying

To love is to feel pain

and then gives hope with

Remember, it ain't too late to take a deep breath and throw yourself into it with everything you got

It's great to be alive

Drive-By Truckers - A Blessing and A Curse

Drive-By Truckers - A Blessing and A Curse

With the impending release of A Blessing and A Curse the Truckers next week (April 18) have put the entire album up to be streamed at the link above. You gotta love it (the streaming & the album itself)