Review Summary: A reflection on the past four-years and a look into the undefined future.
It makes sense that the Drive-By Truckers released an album on January 31st, 2020. It’s the day that set into stone the political world the United States has entered, but also is the day that sets off the weekend that signifies our potential for change. President Trump is under trial by the Senate, a jury that ultimately decided to not allow witnesses. January 31st is also the first day of the final weekend before the Iowa caucuses begin and we begin to decide what we want the next stage of American politics to look like, or realize that hoping for a new stage of American politics is completely futile. January 31st is the day people either reveled in the decisions of our elected officials or were repulsed by their decisions. Likely, regardless of political affiliation, most members of the country both reveled and were repulsed for different reasons - that is unless you reside in the states of Utah or Maine, where nuance is, somewhat surprisingly, needed. The Drive-By Truckers are not from Utah or Maine, but instead wave the flag for Alabama progressivism through their Southern rock lens. In 2016, they were furious. In 2020, they are disgusted.
While they have never been remiss in discussing politics, 2016’s
American Band saw the Drive-By Truckers at their most consistently explicit in their political message, i.e., the disgrace they felt in Trump’s America, all while trying to maintain a Southern identity. They took on heavy topics such as their support for Black Lives Matter movement and their disdain for the NRA and spat vitriol. While
American Band was a reflection on multiple symptoms on the disease that was inflicting America, but also made it clear that Trump himself was a symptom as well, not the disease. 2020’s
The Unravelling is able to reflect on and react real time to the reality of that disease. Just the track list itself is a pretty fine indicator of topics that are discussed throughout the album - there’s a four song run that with songs titled “Thoughts and Prayers”, “21st Century USA”, “Heroin Again”, and “Babies in Cages”. Positive opinions or support towards any of these topics from the Truckers are not to be found. The disgust that the band feels is most succinctly summed up with the line
“Stick it up your ass with your useless thoughts and prayers”.
This isn’t a particularly clever line and there are sure to be people pissed-off that Patterson Hood, the leader in the songwriting/singing duo of the band, along with Mike Cooley, isn’t giving people credit for their good intentions. There are going to be people pissed off saying that the lyrics to “Babies in Cages” are inflammatory and lack nuance. And that is completely the point. The Drive-By Truckers are pissed off and think we should all be pissed off. Many of the songs purposefully take that inflammatory route, begging for an argument or for someone to call the band out so they can release pure unfiltered fury. Because this needs to be clear - This isn’t fury. This isn’t as far as the band can go. This is disgust, this is disappointment, and this isn’t stories told from the band’s perspective - They’re singing tales of a bleak reality.
An issue therein does lie that maybe a little more anger
would be suitable. This is the most sonically subtle the band has been, representing swamp rock more than their typical Southern rock. While the fury of the lyrics work and the bluntness of the sound fits, it might not do much good if people lose interest before being able to listen to the lyrics. While that lack of engagement doesn’t quite hit, that balance between bleak reflection and rock and roll is for sure a difficult one. That realization makes “Armageddon’s Back in Town” an absolute standout, as it perfectly combines those two factors. Hood sings of a trip across the country, with the unmistakable sound that is related with traveling the expanse of Middle America, but with lyrics describing the broken down artifacts found across the country and the helplessness that comes along with them. It ends in a musical coda full of adrenaline that is one of the best of the Truckers’ twenty-five year career.
Only nine songs long,
The Unravelling ends with the duo of “Grievance Merchants” and “Awaiting Resurrection”. “Grievance Merchants” is one of the two Cooley songs to appear on the album, the other a disappointment, largely about going for a drive to cool down after political arguments. However, “Grievance Merchants”, about white male rage and its correspondence with gun violence, may be his lyrical masterpiece. Sounding almost scared, he sings
“Give a boy a target for his grievance / And he might get it in his head they need to pay”. “Awaiting Resurrection is an almost nine-minute long slow burner, wondering when, if ever, we will turn our back on the America that is described throughout
The Unravelling. The date in history that this album was released on could be the beginning of the answer to that question.
