Micah P Hinson may look like an emo Elvis Costello, but he wields a ragged baritone not unlike Bill Callahan’s, albeit in his murkier Smog years.
Micah P Hinson may look like an emo Elvis Costello, but he wields a ragged baritone not unlike Bill Callahan’s, albeit in his murkier Smog years. Hinson has been serving up blood-soaked Americana since his debut, but this latest gun-toting effort comes with an extra few licks of blood. He embraces his American gothic tendencies, and any cries to his maker tend to be in vain – for all the references to ‘God’, there’s an equal amount of ‘Goddamn’s.
This new album reverts back to using ‘And The…’ as a title – this keeps Hinson’s solo command, but also gives a hefty nod to his collaborators. It also sees him getting back on track with a release to match his earliest recordings, after the forgettable and rather indulgent covers album released last year. His previous original album, 2008‘s Micah P. Hinson And The Red Empire Orchestra, had a couple of standouts – the spare When We Embraced, which was rightfully plucked out as a 7”, but also the rich Dyin’ Alone, where the strings really lifted his stripped-back song-writing to a new level.
This new collection is boosted by some grandiose string arrangements, from the widescreen instrumental opening track A Call To Arms to the stunning Watchers Tell Us Of The Night. Rather than aiding the melancholy of laid-back country, the strings play havoc among the more discordant bent of Hinson’s newest compositions.
It’s nice to see someone putting a bit of chaos into country music, as if post-rock was seeping darkly through the cracks – perhaps best realized on the epic, almost Dirty Three-like climax The Returning. It’s not an entirely consistent album, but that’s part of its rustic charm.
