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By: Brian Gearing
The revival of Son Volt with Okemah and the Melody of Riot showcased an older Jay Farrar, one whose often gloomy worldview was tempered by a more mature outlook that realized that life isn't always as bad as seems - though sometimes it's worse. The Search, the second record from Son Volt's latest incarnation, continues Farrar's evolution, both musically and lyrically, and like Okemah, it combines the gritty rock and alt. country of his youth with a lively but restrained search for new sounds.
"Slow Hearse" is a slow, morbid opening to an emotionally varied record, full of mournful piano and pained vocals, but just as it falls flat, the horn-drenched Americana of "The Picture" plants Son Volt in the middle of a Broadway show on some anonymous, dusty Texas highway. While Farrar's voice gets lost amongst the horns, reverbed keys and dirty guitars, that same instrumental density lends weight to the gorgeously simple melodies of "Underground Dream" and "Highways and Cigarettes," the latter of which gets an extra touch of "purty" from background vocalist Shannon McNally.
With so many heavily orchestrated tracks, it's easy to assume The Search is Farrar's middle-aged pursuit of a post-guitar musical persona. The ghostly echo and reverb of the mid-tempo "Circadian Rhythm" lends creedence to such thoughts, but one listen to the stomping, slide-soaked "Action" reminds us that there's still plenty of alt. left in this country boy. "Automatic Society," "Methamphetamine" and the title track all rock with the force of Son Volt's earliest material, and while The Search is evidence that Farrar is growing up, there's plenty here to assure us that he's far from getting old.
JamBase | Heartland
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