Blog Post
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - 'Weathervanes'
Iain McArthur • 22 August 2023
Album Review
Now in his mid-40s, Jason Isbell has been working meticulously, and often self-flagellatingly, on the craft of song-writing for what seems like half-a-lifetime. This latest collection of his modern alt-country and americana songs shows that he has absolutely and indisputably reached his prime.
Some much-publicised demons brought his contribution to Drive-By Truckers to a premature end in 2007 but he’s been sober since 2012. Lord knows what he’s seen in real life and what goes on in his head but there are few writers more qualified to chronicle the challenges of life at the bottom end of America. His songs present perceptive, insightful and finely drawn portraits of flawed and f*cked-up human beings struggling against the tide. If you had empathy for the under-dog Ruth Langmore and her clan in TV’s Ozark then you might just have some sympathy for this cast of devils and angels too.
The album’s opening track asks if you’ve ever loved a woman with a death wish and that sets the table for a bleak tableau of broken hearts and broken homes featuring a cast of dancers, drunks and dealers that find redemption hard to come by. The best and most evocative representation is the haunting ‘King of Oklahoma’ which lays bare one man’s flaws and the disintegration of his marriage. It features Jason’s wife Amanda Shires on fiddle and, like the rest of the album, it’s written and played with precision and passion and the lyrics are brimming with authentic imagery and memorable lines.
At times, Isbell comes on like Neil Young at his most sharp and introspective, not least when lamenting a friend and the damage done in the tender but caustic and hard-driving ‘When We Were Close’. There’s a warm bass-line in ‘Strawberry Woman’ and a mournful beauty in the backing vocals of ‘Volunteer’ but, of course, a happy ending remains just out of reach, even when someone nearly makes it to the altar in ‘This Ain’t It’.
The darkness of the lyrical content might be triggering for some but there is beauty in the misery and Isbell brings heart and soul and real depth to the song-writing. This is a very fine album and for an even deeper dive, the excellent HBO documentary ‘Running with Our Eyes Closed’ is currently available in the UK on Sky Documentaries and provides a quite stunning insight into Isbell’s life and work.