It's not often that I find a band compelling for its lyrics.  In fact, I rarely pay attention to lyrics at all.  Other than the occasional clever turn of phrase, rock poetry wilts under any scrutiny.  And don't give me that crap about Dylan being a first-rate heir to the Beats-you try reading Tarantula.  So it's a shock to me that the Drive-By-Truckers interest me above all for their facility with words.  Their last offering Southern Rock Opera, was a sprawling, two-disc concept album that loosely reconstructed the rise and fall of a semi-legendary southern rocker (a.k.a. Ronnie Van Zandt), funneling it all through a modernized southern rock sound.  The band, led by Patterson Hood, made something intellectually interesting out of a VH-1 Behind the Music plotline and perhaps more surprising captured the fist-pumping energy of bands like Skynyrd without devolving into corn-pone caricature.  Now comes Decoration Day, a less ambitious but more enjoyable successor.

Like musical kin of the Coen Brothers, Hood and his bandmates, especially newcomer Jason Isbell, exploit stereotypes but end up turning them inside out and finding the humanity within.  Almost all of their songs explore some aspect of the hardscrabble life of rural and small town white southerners (minus the country club types).  Sympathetic but not unimpeachable, the subjects of most of the tracks yearn for better lives but fall prey to bad luck and their own hedonistic impulses.  Generations seem trapped in a never-ending cycle of heavy drinking, violence, and bad relationships.  Now, these images could, and sometimes do, seem like unbearable clichés.  What elevates the songs for the most part are occasional narrative surprises that create more fully realized human characters.  "Loaded Gun in the Closet," for example, begins as a tale of an unsatisfying, patriarchal marriage governed by the violent threat that the husband's shotgun represents.  We learn at the end that he has only placed it there for his wife in case she needs to keep him in line.  If Southern Rock Opera seemed at times like a novel, Decoration Day seems like a short-story collection.

Musically, it is more varied, thus avoiding the tedium that occasionally creeps into Southern Rock Opera.  Although the raucous tunes "Hell No, I Ain't Happy," "Careless," and "Marry Me" prove that the Truckers have not surrendered any of their southern rock chops, the album is filled mainly with softer tones.  Alt-country, rather than Skynyrd, seems the primary influence.  David Barbe's production captures the band's loose, ramshackle style, as if they were knocking out songs in an old house.  If not particularly inspired and original, the sound is appropriate, and the three-guitar attack makes the most of the band's stylistic conservatism.  Hood's vocals leave a bit to be desired.  His heavily accented rasp can grow tiresome at times.  Still, for the most part he and the other vocalists strike the right chord, and the songs are strong enough to overcome their occasional shortcomings.  Highlights include "Sink Hole," which perfectly counterpoises fuzz guitar riffs and delicate leads, and the title track, a stirring dramatization of generational resentment.

Intense, unpretty, and often sloppy, the Truckers' music underscores their focus on the hard lives of their subjects.  Those looking for an occasional respite from more polished, urbane fare should check out these tales of hard-rocking excess and heartbreak.

-Bland Whitley

Alums who attend class reunions fall into two camps: those who want to see how the other half has fared and those who want the other half to see how they have fared. Classify Manchester punks The Buzzcocks, Class of '77, in the latter category. Though not actually a reunion, due to the fact the quartet's self-titled release follows 1999's "Modern" and a string of releases earlier in the ‘90s—it finds the band refining their melodic songwriting sensibilities.  In truth, the hard-hitting results rock harder than recent efforts of most current bands that foolishly refer to themselves as "punk." Steve Diggle, who took over guitar duties for Howard Devoto after he left to start Magazine in 1977, pens almost half of the material on the album.  Devoto teams up with Pete Shelley on two revved-up tracks: the remake of "Stars" from last year's Shelley-Devoto collaboration and "Lester Sands." Yet the best track (and most audible lyrically) is "Certain Move," as it recalls the bittersweet melodies of the band's early work, though not on the same plane as early classics like "What Do I Get" or "I Don't Mind." Simply put, The Buzzcocks remain in a class of their own.

-P.J. Osborne

Clem Snide—named after a character in the William S. Burroughs schizoid-drug novel, Naked Lunch—is well known for bringing together country minimalism, jazz, and folk influences under one easy-rock tent.  The appropriately titled Soft Spot is the trio's fifth LP.  It's a quiet, slow-paced affair, recalling the work of Lambchop, Vic Chesnutt, Will Oldham, and Ron Sexsmith.  It also marks a departure for Clem Snide.  Singer-songwriter Eef Barzelay has had something of a change of heart.  Maybe it's due to his becoming a family man.  Regardless, his songs on Soft Spot steer clear of the shallow waters of pop culture.  (The smarty-pants word-plays on earlier songs "Joan Jett of Arc" and "The Junky Jews" are conspicuously absent here.)  Instead, Barzelay plumbs the depths of life's weighty intangibles (God, love, death), most noticeably on "Forever, Now and Then," "There is Nothing," and "Fontanelle."  Some will wish that Barzelay would have written a few more up tempo numbers and dispensed with a few of the slow-as-molasses ones.  It seems the songs that work best are the faster-paced ones, including "Tuesday, October 24th" and "Happy Birthday."  Nonetheless, most will find Soft Spot a delicate little treasure.

-Randall J. Stephens 

The Smoking Popes are certainly deserving of a tribute album such as this, but little of what is found here adds anything to that much missed band's legacy. It features mostly second tier pop punk and emo bands.  Only the material¾not the performances¾ultimately makes it a worthwhile comp.

A highpoint is the Ataris' performance of "Pretty Pathetic," a piano ballad, which is a departure for these "Boys Of Summer." Other notable moments include "Do Something" by Duvall, which is Popes singer Josh Caterer's new outfit. The song originally appeared on the East Timor benefit album from 2000. And speaking of alumni, former Popes guitarist Tom Daily plays "Waiting Around," and "Don't Be Afraid" is by the band's old drummer Mike Felumlee. 

The rest of this project is filled out with bands that do a passable job of approximating the Smoking Popes' downer rock. Yet overall the disc lacks eclecticism.  It would have been far more interesting had the compilers released an album filled with artists of varying styles who were also influenced by the Smoking Popes somber vibe.

-Dan MacIntosh

On first listening to Son, Jeff Hanson's vocals bring to mind images of Elliott Smith on helium, rather than heroin.  Hanson also bears comparison to Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters), John Denver, and perhaps Erik Bøe (Kings of Convenience).  And he channels a whole host of other Gods from the singer-songwriter pantheon.  Yet Hanson's impassioned falsetto and his command of songcraft is so tremendous that after several listens to Son it's clear that the CD stands on its own merits.  His whispery vocals and enchanting little arrangements bring this freshman release to life.   (A talented instrumentalist, Hanson plays nearly everything on the disc.)  He doesn't waver from the melancholic falsetto thing.  Still the range of songs on Son is pretty broad.  A few of the tracks are just irresistible, including the stirringly urgent "Laughing at Nothing," the Abbey Road-like "As Honest as a Liar Can Be," and the heartening "Some Years Ago."  There's really not a weak track on the album.  Jeff Hanson has proved himself a remarkable folk prodigy. 

-Randall J. Stephens