Review Summary: And somehow you put down my fears on a page when I still had nothing to say.
Something More Than Free doesn’t have any moments. It doesn’t have a “Cover Me Up” or a perfectly placed “***ed” and (mostly) ignores strong political inclinations. Musically, it’s a fairly breezy album, with basic melodies, sparse arrangements, and Isbell’s voice resembling a man that is further into sobriety, further into marriage, and further away from the unhappy and unhealthy memories.
Something More Than Free is Isbell’s sparsest offering, differing from the country stars career-defining
Southeastern. Unlike its predecessor,
Something More Than Free won’t grab you and force you to listen, but it will invite you in, and you’ll be all the more happy to accept that invitation.
When opening track “If It Takes a Lifetime” begins with a light, jaunty stroll, it makes you immediately wonder where the Isbell of
Southeastern has gone. “It Takes a Lifetime” is fairly different from anything Isbell has written, fully embracing his roots-country style, all while being oddly upbeat and lighthearted. But lyrically, it tracks - It’s about a man learning to grow up, working a job he hates in a town he dislikes, but learning how to live and love through it anyway. Even if there isn’t anything as upbeat as the opening track on the rest of the album, it is the unveiling of what Isbell has done to alter his sound ever-so-slightly instead of simply trying to remake
Southeastern - Simpler songs, simpler melodies, and a strong focus on lyrical storytelling. It’s a formula rarely deviated from across all of
Something More Than Free and, even if it lacks the personal and emotional gut-punches that Isbell is known for, it replaces them with introspective gut-punches that take slightly longer to land.
None of Isbell’s characters are extraordinary people. In fact, the majority of them really don’t do anything at all, besides reflect on their past and how it led them to where they currently were, which seems to be a pretty apt description of the human experience. This includes a man who needs a divorce for him to realize he needs to find himself before finding others (24 Frames), a man who has an old flame return to his life to remind him of who he was before he found himself (How To Forget), a man wondering if he took away the opportunity to find herself away from his mother after she had him as a teenager (Children of Children), and encountering an old love and wondering if they have found themselves (The Life You Chose) - In case it hasn’t become obvious, the main theme of the album is searching for inner-meaning and wondering if we can find it ourselves, or if there is some sort of outside force that will point us towards our fate. While this seems like a larger than life theme, Isbell scales it back considerably, focusing on each of his unspectacular, mostly small town town characters, each of them at least somewhat inspired by Isbell.
The instrumentation reflects this idea as well. Each song is driven by Isbell’s wonderful guitar skills, largely acoustic with a few exceptions, and some additional dressing, with the most notable being the fiddle skills of Amanda Shires, Isbell’s wife. There is nothing grandiose about any track, and while many country artists are trying to reinvent the wheel or do something to stand out, Isbell doesn't take that bait. The final product is something that’s not quite country, not quite folk, and definitely not rock, but instead a return to basics. This doesn’t mean that Isbell plays it safe, as his strength in songwriting is still clear. Perhaps even more so, as he is able to show that he can still craft an engaging song even with incredibly bare bones.
The execution of the album is perfectly brought together in “Speed Trap Town”, one of Isbell’s best songs, and also one of his most basic. At its core, it’s a song about a small town man who’s father is a state trooper who is known for pulling people over in speed traps, often pulling over women to have sex with them. Everyone in the town knows the man and his father and his transgressions - As well as the fact that his father is now terminally ill. Throughout the song, the narrator struggles with feelings of love, shame, and helplessness over his father’s condition. Paired with the stirring imagery of small-town America, one of our narrator’s then finally decides to take his fate into his own hands. Set to the backdrop of an acoustic guitar strumming, a brief and relaxed guitar solo, and two simple vocal melodies that alternate verses, “Speed Trap Town” is Isbell’s most successful turn on
Something More Than Free.
Something More Than Free is not
Southeastern, and that is going to disappoint some folks. However, even though it doesn’t really heavily deviate from Isbell’s style,
Something More Than Free has still created something entirely different from any of Isbell’s prior (or future) works. It’s deceivingly simple, yet thematically complex with its meandering characters. The most “Isbell track” would be “Palmetto Rose”, written in response to the shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, in which nine African Americans were killed during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Isbell disparages Southern Pride in the most rock-forward track on the album. In case the rest of
Something More Than Free wasn’t convincing enough, “Palmetto Rose” is our reminder that the Isbell from
Southeastern still exists, and that he believes, to some extent, that free will does as well:
“
Here on King Street we're selling our roses/
Two for a five dollar bill/
And tonight after everything closes/
I'll follow my own free will/
And I've taken my fill/
I've taken my fill”
