A Blessing

What in the world happened to the Drive-By Truckers? In the years since their star-making Southern Rock Opera double album opus, the Truckers have been steadily increasing their reputation as “America’s Best Rock Band,” a label their spotless release, The Dirty South, warranted. With their sixth studio album, A Blessing and a Curse, the Drive-By Truckers have quickly become “America’s Most Overrated and Disappointing Band.” Closet good ol’ boys everywhere bow their heads in shame, redeemed only slightly on the closing track, “A World of Hurt,” as lead Trucker Patterson Hood sings about almost “blowing his brains out.” 

Almost blowing your brains out in the closing seconds can’t redeem what may as well go down as one of the worst follow albums of all time. While much of the sparkling press the Trucker’s 2003 album, Decoration Day, saw might have been slightly superfluous, The Dirty South captured a band at the top of their game, thus setting the expectations high for whatever was to come next. A Blessing sees the truckers releasing their first batch of over-produced, non-road-tested songs. And did I mention that they’re crap? It pains me to say it, but let me reiterate: they’re crap. Crap.

With their lineup of three singer/songwriters/guitarists, the Truckers were once almost too talented to fit onto a single disc. Coming off of such classics as “Outfit,” “The Day John Henry Died,” and “Danko/Manuel,” Jason Isbell disappoints the most with his blatant wannabe radio hits, “Easy on Yourself” and “Daylight.” Patterson Hood’s Southern Rawk drawl sounds out of place under Blessings clean production, though his writing is (for the most part) up to par. Perpetually consistent shadowman Mike Cooley contributes the album’s two best songs with “Gravity’s Gone” and “Space City,” neither of which comes close to equaling his classic-to-be Dirty South opener, “Where the Devil Don’t Stay.”

Like Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Gimme Back My Bullets album, A Blessing and a Curse will probably be the band’s best selling, best reviewed work. Think back to the Oscar Awards, any year - you know, the part of the show when the old guy gets up and accepts an award for a mediocre film over a batch of much better films by young directors? That’s pretty much what’s going on here: acclaim based on overlooked past work. A Blessing and a Curse is the frontrunner for disappointment of the year. Let’s hope this isn’t the end of the Truckers.     4.5/10

Written by G. William Locke