Day 29, Drive-By Truckers - Brighter than Creation's Dark

Stars: 2.5
Song: “Two Daughters and a Wife,” “Three Dimes Down,” “Self Destructive Zones”
Live: $18

I had heard one Drive-By Truckers song years ago,and I never forgot the band. Not because of the song - I can't remember a single thing about it - but because of the catchy band name. (Let that be a lesson to you. Band name does matter.) Since I remembered nothing about the music, I used my analytical skills and deciphered the name in order to make an assumption on how it was going to sound: “Truckers”—a truck driver is probably number two on Jeff Foxworthy’s list of redneck jobs, and it is common knowledge that there is nothing rednecks like more than country rock. But the “drive by” evoked an edginess and depth that goes beyond your average Garth Brooks. It suggests murder, recklessness, cowardice, and anger. So I tagged it as hard country rock. And I was 85% right.

The album title Brighter than Creations Dark should have told me right away that this wasn’t going to be a Dwight Yoakam sing along. And although I got that right, the album still took me by surprise. I was not expecting “Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife” to be the first out of the gates. This is a tender song about dying and remembering how beautiful life was. One thing I have learned throughout this whole 80 Albums in 80 Days ordeal is the importance of the first track on an album. In this instance, this first song demanded that I take Drive-By Truckers more seriously than if they had started with “Three Dimes Down” which sings, “Totally screwed, while chicken wing puke eats the candy apple red off his Corvette.” Even though this is one of my favorite songs on the album, if it were first, I would take “The Man I Shot” as a joke, I would hardly even consider “Purgatory Line,” and I would toss “Bob” out the window faster that you could say “peanut butter sandwich.” But because I trusted so much in this first track, I took my time to try and trust songs like “Bob.” I thought to myself, is this line, “Bob will drink a beer or two every now and again, he always had more dogs than he ever had friends?” all that bad? Here’s the kicker: yes, it is.

All in all, the album falls a little short. For one, it is a little confused. They sound like a completely different band from song to song. You have Dolly Parton singing “Home Field Advantage,” Toby Keith doing “Lisa’s Birthday,” the Marlboro Man doing “Monument Valley,” the guy from Soul Asylum doing “The Man I Shot,” and Mick Jagger on “Three Dimes Down.” Typically, I love mixing it up, but this just feels a little longwinded, like a run-on sentence with too many different thoughts crammed in.

I do like their style, though. These guys would put on a hell of an outdoor concert: people tailgating behind their pickups, cooking meat and holding beer wrapped in coozies with the Alabama or South Carolina state flag stamped on it, and everyone is stomping their feet yelling "You're taking me dooooowwwn with that home feild advantage!" And when the sun goes down and the beer runs out, tracks like “Two Daughters…” and “Purgatory Line” sends everybody home sleeply and smiling.