Son Volt's American Central Dust

American Central Dust is Jay Farrar and Son Volt’s 3rd album since coming out of “retirement” (i.e., a hiatus for a couple of Farrar solo albums and band personnel make-over), and the album marks a high point of the new Son Volt. This high point may be difficult to discern, as Farrar has never meandered too far from his comfort zone both lyrically and musically even though his songs are stylistically varied; Farrar’s vocal tone, cadence, and blunt, melancholy and sometimes cumbersome lyrics are unmistakable. That being said, American Central Dust delivers, particularly when considered as a unit, and there are several stand-out tracks. On American Central Dust, the rest of Son Volt consists of a new guitarist Chris Masterson, Mark Spencer newly manning keys and steel guitar, along with bassist Andrew Duplantis and drummer Dave Bryson from previous albums. This configuration seems as comfortable as old boots playing these songs.

“Dynamite” is a beautiful song, with fairly smooth lyrics over a shuffling beat and melodic accordion, reminiscent of the stellar work on Trace. Farrar sings “This love is like celebrating Fourth of July with dynamite” in the chorus; the pairing of danger and love is 100% Farrar. In the country, twangy “Roll On”, there is much melancholy with imagery of tragedy (“John Barleycorn make his way among the dirty diamonds”) but the flickers of hope and perseverance do peak through the clouds.

Luscious piano and fiddle lend a mournful sound to “Cocaine and Ashes”, another song where lyrical contrasts are effectively used, this time in an empathetic ode to Keith Richards, his mortality, addiction, and ridiculousness (“I snorted my father, but I’m still alive”).
“When the Wheels Don’t Move” is a big distorted-guitar plodding rocker that indulges Farrar’s penchant for political righteousness and the plight of middle America. It tells a tale of the current economic disaster and its effect on the American blue collar worker, and squarely lays the blame on government and corporations.
“Dust of Daylight” is a plaintive country song about lost love and the fact that those in the relationship are sometimes the last to know that the love has been lost. Somewhat contrary to themes of previous work, Farrar doesn’t seem to be shying away from songs about love and heartbreak.
“Down to the Wire” is a track whose drivetrain seems low on oil. It is mildly repetitive musically, and is a great example of Farrar’s sometimes overly complicated vocals coming across as clunky and cumbersome. Message and vocabulary have been given precedence over smooth cadence and meter.

In short, this is a very solid Son Volt offering, but is not one that would be good to just buy select songs off of Itunes; it doesn’t have the hits that Trace had. Akin to the cardgame sung about on “Pushed Too Far”, either go “all-in” on this one or fold. I would recommend being bold.

-Ted