Wagons - The Rise AndFall Of Goodtown

Tue 2nd Jun, 2009 in Music Reviews

Four records in and Wagons have well and truly hit their stride. On the new album The Rise And Fall Of Goodtown they have, in 33 minutes, captured the essence of what real country and soul music is all about. The wide open spaces, love won and lost, death, God and Satan.

From the retro-Western artwork, with its sepia tinged images of communal country life and long haired rural girls, to the clashes of country and gothic rock, this is an ambitious project. One that in greedier hands would have been granted a more generous running time and overblown themes. Henry Wagons has the good editing ear to bring the cows home early and the record benefits greatly.

The most prominent feature of the album is Wagons’ voice, a rich and deep baritone tone that begs inevitable comparison to Johnny Cash. He has mastered a fine balance between the weariness of outlaw country and the bold drama of Las Vegas soul. He has also found a way to incorporate the low register of contemporaries like David Eugene Edwards (Wovenhand, 16 Horsepower), especially on the swampy murkiness of Evette, with its tale of a poisonous woman.

Wagons nail it best when they take the dusty side road, the southern American tales of dying love wrapped in lovely strings and swampy organ. These darker and moodier songs deal in more overcast atmospherics. As a result, they feel more genuine. Love Growing Old is an unsettling tale of pessimism; creeping and ominous it conjures up images of a conflicted man in a large, empty and decaying house with one last thing to live for.

A cover of Hoyt Axton’s Never Been To Spain is given the full Tom Jones/Neil Diamond treatment, with horns and a grandiose, swelling – œ70s soul ballad feel. Moonhorn Lake comes from the same era but differs with its front porch setting, gorgeous guitar line and Steve – œHarmony’ Hassett’s ghostly backing vocals.

Love Me Like I Love You is one of few missteps on the album. It is a surly pastiche that just seems too clumsy alongside the other tracks. If they had pulled back the barbershop chants and come up with rhyming couplets with either more subtlety or humour (like Nick Cave’s recent frappuccino and wisteria lines) then they could have saved the song.

Wagons are travelling down a well-worn trail, following in the footsteps of a million other strummers and crooners. They approach their influences with both reverence and a knowing smile. Either way you look at it – tribute or pastiche – it somehow all works in a wonderfully intriguing way.

The Rise And Fall Of Goodtown is out now through Spunk Records.