Drive by Truckers: English Oceans

Drive by Truckers: English Oceans

2014

ATO Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Shit Shots Count  2. When He's Gone  3. Primer Coat  4. Pauline Hawkins  5. Made Up English Oceans   6. The Part of Him  7. Hearing Jimmy Loud  8. Til He's Dead or Rises  9. Hanging On  10. Natural Light  11. When Walter Went Crazy  12. First Air of Autumn  13. Grand Canyon


Happy New Year, everybody!

It's completely unbelievable that I don't have a hangover today...I drank a bunch of beer and rum...

So many rum and cokes that they actually started to taste good after awhile...I was like, "Did they always taste like this? Huh, they tasted bad earlier...This must be a different kind of rum..."

Naw, Rummy, you're just all drunked out...I'm not a big fan of mixing liquor with pop...I usually prefer to do a straight shot and then chase it with the soda, but for some reason I didn't do that last night...

I have some vague memories of listening to Tom Waits' "A Sight for Sore Eyes" while the TV flickered on in the background...I remember seeing Carson Daly and some shirtless dude endlessly flexing his pecs well into the wee hours...

Blog-wise, I think I'm going to do the same thing I did last year..I'm going to restart at letter "A" and go alphabetically through the A-DR"  albums I bought in 2014 until I regain my place in the alphabet...But since we're on the final DBT album I own, I'll finish off the Drive by Truckers section...

And how is "English Oceans"? It's fan-fucking-tastic...I'm sorry I doubted the Drive by Truckers..."Go Go Boots" seemed somewhat tired and after years passed without another release I kinda assumed they were over...But then "English Oceans" came out and they sounded completely refreshed.. Possibly the most, fire-breathing, all-out rocking album the band ever put out..

When I first put this on and heard "Shit Shots Count," I couldn't believe this wasn't an "Exile on Main Street" outtake...Which is possibly the highest compliment I can bestow upon a rock song...But it's true...It has that same, shaky, drunk-yet-ready-to-take-on-the-world abandon of prime Stones...A style many others have attempted but so few have mastered...

And as the album plays on it struck me there was an awful lot of Mike Cooley on here...He writes roughly half the songs and even handles lead vocals on a Patterson Hood penned track ("Til He's Dead or Rising") which is an approach I don't think they've ever tried before...This decision was beyond wise, since one listen to "Go Go Boots" confirmed that  Cooley seemed to be on a hell of a roll lately...

Alright, time for my personal favorites:  ""Hearing Jimmy Loud"  which is another Stonesy rocker sporting one of the album's funniest lines:

"She had a tanning habit,
She's like a talking leather couch..." 

 And "Grand Canyon" builds on the promise of "I Do Believe" from their last album, which hinted at slowly unfurling country rock on a grand cosmic scale...That  feeling where you have no choice but to put your head down and go through the day-to-day drudgery while the unknowable forces of life and death build and destroy all around you...Understanding that control is an illusion...I'm impressed they pulled this off...

I was also pleasantly surprised by "Natural Light"...It's done in a barrelhouse blues style that reminds me of the type of thing the Kinks might have attempted on their "Muswell Hillbillies" album...They should play this in Natty Light commercials...Wait, is there such a thing as a Natty light commercial?

I don't know..."English Oceans" may have upended "Southern Rock Opera" as one of the best starting points to get into DBT...If it had a single song as instantly unforgettable as "Outfit," "Heathens" or "My Sweet Annette" it might also top "Decoration Day," but that's not the case so "Decoration Day" still occupies their "best album" spot...But still, this is damn close...A lot closer than I would have ever guessed...

Here's "Hearing Jimmy Loud"...Enjoy....