Sunday, March 21, 2021

Day 0932 - Southern Rock Opera

Drive-By Truckers "Southern Rock Opera"


Pretty much what it says on the tin.   A rock opera utilising and talking about Southern Rock, with special focus given to Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young, and very much (musically) in their style.

From what I've read, the story is supposed to chart the progress of a group of youngsters from their Southern upbringing longing after fame and fortune, to finally getting what they want but with all the eventual pitfalls of fame.

I would say that I enjoyed one or two of the sounds on here, particularly on the second disc which has lots of nice guitar harmony bits going on and there is solid riffage throughout. "Angels and Fuselage" is a yearning epic rock ballad in the vein of Skynyrd's best.

The problem then is the 90-minute runtime.   I didn't really pay much attention to the 'narrative' and there's not enough variety to maintain interest across that duration of music (for my tastes anyway).   As is the case with many double albums, I feel that this could have been shorn down to an arresting single album.   

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