Robert Francis & The Night Tide
Heaven
Reviewed by: Ari Roth
Robert Francis makes anthemic yet lyrical country-tinged rock that splits the difference between gentle balladry and windswept, road-ready Springsteen-isms without ever coming off as overly beholden to its influences. Heaven is not necessarily a revelation, but at it’s best it is affecting and enjoyable, full of indelible melodies and vivid storytelling.
Despite this heavy lyrical emphasis, the album works best when Francis is surrounded by the jangly, propulsive-but-never-overpowering backing of his band, The Night Tide. After the scene-setting piano intro of “Something Tells It Not To,” Heaven enters a powerful four song stretch that moves from strength to strength. “Baby Was The Devil” and “Love Is A Chemical” are sleek, windswept rock songs full of honking saxophones and high, wordless backing vocals, as Francis narrates the twin rushes of love and the open road. “Ukiah” slows the tempo a few notches, pairing classic highway drifter mythos with well-crafted earworm hooks in what is one of the album’s highlight tracks. Francis does not want you to forget his predecessors – the chorus line of “Ukiah” knowingly swipes from Bob Dylan’s “Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again” – but this does little to diminish the effectiveness of these songs.
Elsewhere, the album begins to sag slightly as the arrangements become sparser and the melodies less immediate. These softer, often acoustic songs are occasionally brilliant – “Wasted On You” and “Pain” in particular are emotionally impactful and subtly devastating, but the album as a whole loses a bit of momentum as it goes on. Nonetheless, Heaven ends with what is certainly its best song. “Hotter Than Our Souls” is glowingly effervescent and gently anthemic, with halos of backing vocals on the chorus and curlicues of pedal steel guitar like wisps of smoke drifting through the darkness. Robert Francis sings of a poignant goodbye: “If there’s a road, you are forgiven, long as it goes / If there’s a wind, you are forgiven, long as it blows / If there’s a story, you are forgiven, long as it’s told.” With that, he revs his engine, and disappears into the night.
Rating: 
