Avett Brothers: Quiet Art While I Go Gas Up The Truck

The Avett Brothers
The Gleam
Ramseur Records

Let me give you the highlights of this very good but very short album by one of my favorite bands of recent years, the Avett Brothers.

The Highlights
1) First off, let's just get this out of the way -- I hate Yardsale. Sorry, but I thoroughly dislike it. It's a bit random, and its quirky story does not save it from the weak lyrics and mediocre melody. I think they had to leave it in, though, because it's the only murder song on the album. Yeah, I can definitely see their point there.

2) Find My Love is a pretty little song, but really nothing special. For an Avett song, that's very rare. Next!

3) Now for the good stuff! Sanguine, When I Drink, and Backwards In Time are Avett Brother songs at their finest -- powerful, yet gentle songs, with a biting humor that belies their moving vulnerability and self-doubt. You'll be stricken by how quiet and low-key these songs are, yet still intense.

I heard When I Drink and Backwards In Time on the Chris Austin stage at Merlefest last year at the Songwriter in the Round session. Both were oddly awkward songs, rather funny, but yet "oh so serious" to quote Backwards. Their humor belies the soft emotions -- vulnerability and self-doubt, that plague these songs. You are very likely to hear something here reminiscent of your own life.

4) And lastly, If It's the Beaches is probably the best song they've ever written, right up there with November Blue. This song crept up on me. It's a break-up song, and a very sad one, but one with a feeling of hope. I love these lines at the climax:

If it's the beaches' sands you want, then you will have them
If it's the mountains' bending rivers, then you will have them
If it's a wish to run away, then I will grant it
Take whatever you think of, while I go gas up the truck
Pack the old love letters up
We will read them when we forget why we left here

As if to leave behind the sadness of the relationship that's withering away, let us run away and remember ourselves, who we were and how we felt when our love was young. The song ends on a major chord, a happy note, but it leaves you in doubt. Will the young lovers get over this rough time in their lives? The song doesn't say. It withers away, with languid minor chords, until the end - a single, crippled chord.

My only complaint is that, as strong a song as Beaches is, it's highly attached to its arrangement. I'm not sure it will translate to a live show as well as November Blue does. But I'm looking forward to being proven wrong.

The Verdict
Yep, that's it. Six songs. Three from Seth and three from Scott. No bass. No banjo. Sounds a bit austere, but trust me, this is a very comforting, soothing album. Those are two words that I haven't used in an Avett review before. I usually use words like "ass-kicking," "crazy wild," and "the Ramones covering Bill Monroe."

This isn't an album like that. This is a beautiful album, full of quiet, contemplative songs that prove that the Avetts are as much art as they are energy. That's why they are still one of my favorite bands.