Review Summary: 'The Civil Wars' is a bland, unfinished follow-up to one of the best folk albums around.
"All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers"- Francois Fenelon
Joy Williams has said that the name and music of 'The Civil Wars' is inspired by "the good, the bad, and the ugly of relationships". How ironic that her and singer/guitarist John Paul White would experience their own civil war. After all, maintaining a band is just as hard as maintaining a marriage, a fact that's been clear ever since the first musical break-up. It was only fitting to call this sophomore album 'The Civil Wars', seeing as how it deals with the battles and conflicting emotions involved in a relationship... it just doesn't do it very well.
The album starts of wonderfully. The opening song is 'The One That Got Away', a smoky clash of powerful vocals and distorted guitars. The song paints the perfect setting for the album- a battlefield of love, friendship, and faith. It's the best song on this record, by far. The second track, 'I Had Me a Girl' continues where #1 left off, but from a different perspective- that of John Paul White. The angry electric guitars that wail in the background are a great touch, and the production by Rick Rubin is very apparent. After that, it all goes downhill. Don't get me wrong, there are still some great tracks- 'Dust to Dust' and 'From This Valley' are both fantastic songs. ('Dust to Dust' has a great drum machine beat, which is something I didn't expect from a more 'folksy' duo).
That said, I came to this album wanting to feel REAL PAIN. Williams recently said in an interview, "If you want to know what happened to the band, listen to the album". That statement couldn't be further from the truth, unless The Civil Wars broke up because they were tired of writing mediocre songs and performing even more mediocre covers. Take for instance, their version of 'Disarm' by The Smashing Pumpkins. The original song is an emotional roller-coaster ride, while the Civil Wars cover is bland, boring, and stretched far too thin.
The songs 'Same Old Same Old', 'Eavesdrop', and 'Oh Henry' abandon the pleasant riffs and creative vocal melodies that appeared on 'Barton Hollow' for more of a heavy ballad sound that's almost identical to most standard country-rock like The Band Perry and Kelly Clarkson. Basically, everything special about The Civil Wars is gone.
The album ends with the song 'D'Arline', which sounds like a poorly recorded demo track. Which brings me to my conclusion- this album's greatest flaw is that it's too unfinished. Unlike the cohesive beauty of their first album, 'The Civil Wars' jumps around sounds, styles, and emotions in a schizophrenic manner. So, in a way, Williams is right. This album does tell you a lot about the death of the band. It just conveys it through the song quality instead of the meaning.
