Brighter Than Creation's Dark

Performer: Drive-By Truckers
Distributor: RED Distribution

Notes: After relentless touring and recording since 2001; and the unexpected departure of original member Jason Isbell in 2006, the Drive-By Truckers were supposed to take a breather and take stock, but instead regrouped (with long-time touring guitarist John Neff promoted to full-fledged member), and quickly delivered their best record. With 19 songs clocking in at 75 minutes, BRIGHTER THAN CREATION'S DARK is a modern roots-rock masterpiece. The band's three ace songwriters--guitarist Paterson Hood, guitarist Mike Cooley, and bassist Shonna Tucker--all contribute affecting takes on love, loss, addiction, violence, regret, and want in a gripping Southern gothic morality play. Musically, the band is on fire with an expansive sonic palette that finds the wrenching roadhouse ballad "Lisa's Birthday" sequenced next to the distortion-blasted stomper "The Man I Shot." Legendary songwriter and session man--and sometime DBT touring partner--Spooner Oldham provides guest support throughout the record. As tightly written and performed as vintage Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, BRIGHTER THAN CREATION'S DARK belongs in the stereos of all fans of the lost art of American rock & roll.

Rolling Stone (p.66) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]hey let the songwriting speak for itself and it sings loud and clear." Spin (p.92) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Hood's own songs tell wrenching tales of the underclass, hitching his stricken voice to country shuffles and jagged Neil Young grooves." Entertainment Weekly (p.69) - "[BRIGHTER] throbs with pedal steel and creamy keys played by veteran R&B session guy Spooner Oldham." -- Grade: B+ Uncut (p.80) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "This is a stunning album, bristling with astute and funny words, glorious tunes and delivered in performances all the more impressive for sounding so utterly effortless..." No Depression (p.68) - "[A] largely satisfying album. It brings back some of the twang and front-porchiness of the past..." Q (Magazine) (p.103) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "It sounds fascinating and its sprawling mix of styles, vocalists and inspirations is not without its passion or humour." Mojo (Publisher) (p.100) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A]n album that's stylistically their most wide-ranging....There's more Americana this time than there is Allmans and ZZ Top -- ranging from straightforward country to electric country-blues." Mojo (Publisher) (p.72) - Ranked #13 in Mojo's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2008" -- "[A]n epic of jagged, Crazy Horse Americana." Blender (Magazine) (p.98) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "BRIGHTER is unique for its air of quiet resignation about misery....The weary midtempo arrangement embody the album's crushing hopelessness, tempered only by John Neff's elegant pedal steel." Harp (magazine) (p.92) - "BRIGHTER is one fo the more tightly-focused, energized DBT records to date."

Despite tongue-in-cheek album titles like SOUTHERN ROCK OPERA and GANGSTABILLY, Athens, Georgia's Drive-by Truckers take their Lynyrd Skynyrd very seriously, as well as their Neil Young and their Replacements. Redneck rock for the 2000s liberal indie-rock crowd, DBTs play straight-up, heartfelt classic rock with a genuine love for the music. Although their lyrics often contain doses of wry humor, it's never at Dixie's expense.

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