Brighter Than Creation's Dark [Digipak] (CD - 2008)

Personnel: Mike Cooley (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, harmonica); Patterson Hood (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano); Shonna Tucker (vocals); John Neff (guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, lap steel guitar, E-bow); David Barbe (guitar, loops); Scott Danbom (fiddle); Spooner Oldham (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Wurlitzer organ); Brad Morgan (drums, tambourine).

Audio Mixer: David Barbe.

Recording information: Chase Park Transduction, Athens, GA (06/2007-09/2007).

Photographer: Jason Thrasher.

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.

Drive-By Truckers leader Patterson Hood wrote in a post on the band's website that 2007 "was supposed to be our year of taking it easy," but it doesn't seem to have worked out that way, and that's a good thing for everyone concerned. The songwriting bug seems to have bit the Drive-By Truckers sometime after the release of 2006's A Blessing and a Curse, and while that album was a bit short on top-shelf material (at least compared to the band's work since Southern Rock Opera), Brighter Than Creation's Dark is a dazzling return to form, delivering some of their finest, most eclectic, and most mature music to date. The album's strength is a pleasant surprise given the departure of guitarist and tunesmith Jason Isbell, who had become one of the group's most interesting writers, but founding members Hood and Mike Cooley have risen to the occasion with some excellent new songs, and bassist Shonna Tucker (who's also Isbell's ex-wife) steps forward as a composer and lead vocalist on this set with three great songs about broken hearts and the stuff that follows in their wake. Opening with "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife," a song by Hood sung from the perspective of a man who has just died and wonders what will become of his family, Brighter Than Creation's Dark presents 19 portraits of folks struggling to make sense of an increasingly chaotic world, ranging from an alcoholic father ("Daddy Needs a Drink") and a family man struggling to hold onto a little piece of the American dream ("The Righteous Path") to a middle-aged guy whose gotten a little too used to being lonely ("Bob") and an illegal gun dealer running short on options ("Checkout Time in Vegas"). While the Truckers are still a great full-tilt hard rock band, Brighter Than Creation's Dark finds them slowing down and turning down a bit more than usual, and in this case it works well for them -- the homey twang of "Lisa's Birthday" and "I'm Sorry Huston" gives new guitarist and pedal steel player John Neff a chance to shine, and the light acoustic arrangement of "Perfect Timing" fits the lyrical portrait of a cheerfully flawed man just fine. And "That Man I Shot" is a blazing, troubling masterpiece in which a soldier home from Iraq can't tear away the memory of a man he killed in combat ("That man I shot, I didn't know him/I was just doing my job, maybe so was he"). It's a tale of the most human consequences of war that's built from equal portions of anger, confusion, and compassion, and it's hard to imagine any other band pulling off its fusion of Southern-fried street smarts and guitar-fueled thunder. It's one of several brilliant moments on Brighter Than Creation's Dark, and less than three weeks into 2008 it's hard not to escape the feeling that with this disc we may already have the best album of the year. ~ Mark Deming minimize