Alt-country giants return with solid if not complacent release

Legends of alt-country and modern Southern rock, Drive-By Truckers are known for using their sense of humor and clever inversion and adaptation of Southern tropes and stereotypes to write trailer park gothics with a gritty edge. On their latest release, they play it pretty straight forward, writing a bunch of good but not great songs that hits a lot of the right musical beats ‰ÛÒ big riffs, driving beats, economically used organ and steel pedal ‰ÛÒ but lack the gravity of Truckers classics like “My Sweet Annette.‰” English Oceans has its highlights though, like pained epic “Pauline Hawkins‰” and would-be-murder ballad “When Walter Went Crazy,‰” both which are fairly representative of the records as a whole. Well written and executed, but so damn bleak that it‰’s a little hard to take for 13 tracks in a row. English Oceans isn‰’t a bad record, but it lacks the color and spark of a lot of previous Drive-By Truckers efforts.

RIYL: Old 97s, Ryan Adams, Houndmouth
Recommended: 4, 6, 9-11