New Release from Jason Isbell
Album Review for Reunions
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit are no strangers to exploring passionate and bleak emotions. Many of the themes from past work like “Last Of My Kind” and “If We Were Vampires” are revisited in their new record, Reunions. The group’s album is a chilling reminder of Isbell’s ability to channel solitude and darkness in potent fashion.
Isbell’s last record with The 400 Unit was The Nashville Sound, which came out in 2017. The Americana songwriter has kept busy in the three-year period between albums. His foreboding song “Maybe It’s Time” left an indelible mark on the Oscar-nominated film A Star Is Born. He also played guitar on Strand of Oak’s Eraserland, produced Josh Ritter’s Fever Breaks, and contributed to the first record of the supergroup Highwomen.
Reunions is Jason Isbell’s seventh album. The record dropped earlier than its initially-scheduled May release date to help independent record stores who have experienced declining sales during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Reunions was conceived well before the pandemic, but the bulk of the work on Reunions contains motifs like helplessness that have suddenly become a universal experience. Like Wilco’s LP Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which leaked the week following 9/11, the meaning of Isbell’s record to listeners suddenly shifts with a generational event.
Reunions begins in unusual fashion. The first sound is Isbell singing “What’ve I done to help?” The track repeats the concern along with eerie music that brings a heightened sense of urgency. Isbell reveals a collapsing world as he asks for someone to save him and his character’s past mistakes. The singer’s early decision to isolate his narrative is a recurring aspect of the record. He frequently sings from a position of self-doubt that brings in haunting otherworldly imagery.
The record’s third track, “Only Children,” mentions the Holy Ghost and asks if the “dead believe in ghosts.” “Overseas” is a powerful track that references the distance Isbell and wife Amanda Shires experience in their marriage as touring musicians. In “Overseas” Isbell observes, “This used to be a ghost town, but even the ghosts got out.”
Reunions includes additional personal references in the driving Country rocker “Be Afraid.” Despite its title, the soul-searching of “Be Afraid” is more ego-checking than spiritual. The satisfying track sees Isbell reference the traps of stardom. He even throws a few lyrics back towards his audience, saying “And we don’t take requests. We won’t shut up and sing. Tell the truth enough. You’ll find it rhymes with everything.”
The guitar work on “Overseas” (and in other parts of the record) is tremendous. It stays strictly within the 400 Unit’s Country-leaning sound. The most musically-diverse piece is “Running With Our Eyes Closed.” The song comes midway through the record and begins with a Peter Gunn rhythm. Eventually, the track transitions to a slick country riff that adds depth to the record.
The individual songs share an anguish that define Jason Isbell’s newest album Reunions as a sad, yet compelling listen. It is a difficult record to listen to as a complete unit. Staying in that mood for an extended time is emotionally taxing. The components are stirring when digested separately and unintentional mesh well with a time when Isbell’s desolate soul-searching is suddenly a pastime.
About the Author: John Saeger is a music and film writer from Philadelphia. He has written the pop-culture blog The Flat Circle: a site dedicated to the arts in the City of Brotherly Love and beyond, since 2017. Twitter Facebook Instagram
Leave a Comment