DBT Brighter Than Creation's Dark Album Review
Drive-By Truckers' Bright Still Fails to Shine
Jul 1, 2009
They’ve proven themselves time and again to be masters of the triple-guitar attack, the art of lyrical storytelling, and quite possibly the saviors of southern rock. With their southern roots firmly placed, the Drive-By Truckers have released some of the darkest, moodiest, most raucous mix of country and rock music since their idols Lynyrd Skynyrd were in their prime.
Ugly at times, poetic at others, and occasionally touching on near brilliance, the Drive-By Truckers are responsible for some of the greatest twangy rock songs to be put to disc in the past two decades.
Somehow though Brighter Than Creation’s Dark falls short of the high benchmark set by their previous albums. While still a decent album in its own right, it fails to live up to what the Drive-By Truckers were once, and will hopefully once again be, capable of.
An Overview of Previous Albums
The Drive-By Truckers formed in the mid 1990s and between 1998 and 2000 released two solid, if lesser known, studio albums and a live album. Then came their 2001 double album Southern Rock Opera. The band’s first concept album, Southern Rock Opera tackled the legend of Lynyrd Skynyrd and their legacy in the south, as well as southern life during that era as viewed from both a northern and southern perspective.
Frontman/guitarist/vocalist Patterson Hood’s songwriting and storytelling dominated the two disks, while guitarist Mike Cooley contributed a handful of songs to the disc. However, these contributions by Cooley [such as ‘Women Without Whiskey’ and ‘72(This Highway’s Mean)’] are some of the highlights of the album and serve to counterbalance and complement Hood’s writing. The Drive-By Truckers ‘you write it, you sing it’ philosophy, adding Cooley vocals on the tracks he penned, was a major element of this complementary work.
This balance between Hood’s work dominating the album and Cooley contributing less to the writing but in potent chunks continued through the Drive-By Truckers next three albums (2003’s Decoration Day, 2004’s The Dirty South, and 2006’s A Blessing and a Curse). These three albums also saw third guitarist Jason Isbell chime in on songwriting and vocal duties, further taking pressure off of Hood (still the main songwriter and vocalist) and further complimenting the different attributes of Hood’s and Cooley’s songwriting abilities.
A perfect example of this is the Drive-By Truckers album The Dirty South. Another concept album, the main theme of the album is dominated by the six songs penned by Patterson Hood. However, Cooley and Isbell each contribute four songs which are equally as strong (Cooley’s ‘Where the Devil Won’t Stay’ and ‘Carl Perkin’s Cadillac’ and Isbell’s ‘The Day John Henry Died’ being standout tracks on the album).
Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
This writing dynamic was thrown off with the departure of Jason Isbell in 2007. Brighter Than Creation’s Dark suffers due to Isbell’s departure. A lengthy disc, featuring nineteen tracks, proves to be a solid outing for the Truckers but finds then stretched a bit thin and not hitting the grandeur of former releases. John Neff ably steps into Isbell’s shoes as the third axe-man in the band but does not contribute in any significant way to the songwriting on the album.
Instead Hood is back to contributing nine songs and Cooley seven, while the remaining three were penned by bassist Shonna Tucker. While a decent songwriter and vocalist, Tucker fails to add what Isbell had previously been able to add to the Drive-By Truckers overall sound and song catalog. Tucker’s vocals work best on this album as they have in previous albums, serving in a backing vocal capacity on Hood and Cooley penned tunes, not in handling lead vocals on her own material.
Possibly due to this songwriting change, and likely also due to the length of the album, Hood and Cooley’s tracks often lack the punch of their previous work. Cooley contributes strong tracks, such as ‘Perfect Timing’ and ‘Self Destructive Zones,’ whereas songs such as ‘Lisa’s Birthday’ sound like fairly generic country songs. Hood brings his signature storytelling to songs like ‘The Man I Shot’ and ‘Monument Valley’ but more often than not seems to fall short (‘The Home Front,’ ‘Daddy Needs a Drink’).
An ambitious album, both in length and also in pushing their sound forward in new directions, the Drive-By Truckers don’t completely miss the mark- they’re just slightly off target. Hinting more at what could have been than what actually is, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark captures a band in transition, trying to maintain a core signature sound while still creating increasingly complex songs. Brighter Than Creation’s Dark hints at brighter things to come.
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