FEATURED REVIEW.........................................................04 APRIL 2005
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Artist:
LAST TRAIN HOME |
If we don't find something to pan soon, people are going to suspect that this site is some sort of shill. The latest offering from Last Train Home, however, is one of the best alt.country releases we've heard this year, so bear with us while we dole out a few more compliments. We promise not to be too effusive.
Frontman Eric Brace founded Last Train Home in 1997, while a music critic with The Washington Post. Eight years and oodles of shows later, Brace and his ever changing collective have just released their fourth full-length album, Bound Away. (The album, on the German label Blue Buffalo, is available from Miles of Music.)
On indefinite leave from his day job, Brace currently calls Nashville home--and Music City certainly makes its presence felt on this release. For starters, Brace and Co. tip their caps to the ultimate Nashville transplant album--Dylan's Nashville Skyline--by offering up an electrifying version of "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You." "Dogs on the East Side," meanwhile, is a lonesome exploration of Todd Snider's side of town, complete with haunting pedal steel and a certifiably cheeze-free trumpet solo.
Elsewhere on the album, Johnny Cash surfaces (in spirit, at least): "Hendersonville" takes its name from the pilgrimage site that is the Man's final resting place, while "Train of Love"--not a cover of the Cash song--borrows one of his famous titles.
At times, Last Train Home is reminiscent of the (unfortunately now-defunct) Hangdogs. The similarities are particularly noticeable on a pair of Bound Away's obscure (but well-chosen) covers: "Marlene" (a Revellaires tune, originally appearing on the 1990 album Pop of Ages) and "To Her Door" (a song by Australian Paul Kelly).
For all its strengths, the album does have a smattering of cheeze (which we would be remiss to overlook). The LTH version of the old standard "Rye Whiskey," for example, it just too darn slick. It's a good song choice, but the production is way too much of the wrong kind of Nashville. The track "Matchbook Message," meanwhile, never should have made the final cut at all. It's just plain hokey. Here's a representative sampling of the lyrics:
"Now
I check my email
Now I check my cell phone
Nothing yet, nothing yet,
Remember what I can't forget."
Mr. Brace, with all due respect, Amy Rigby was wrong.
In summation: A very fine album. Get yourself a copy and help keep these guys in business. One and a half cheezeballs for a little unnecessary gloss and that one hokey song.
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A NOTE ON THE RATING SYSTEM:
5 CHEEZEBALLS = UNLISTENABLE SCHLOCK
3 CHEEZEBALLS = A DIFFICULT SLOG
1 CHEEZEBALL = THE ODD FORGIVABLE MISSTEP
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