Justin Townes Earle
Single Mothers
Reviewed by: Lara Supan
It sounds like Justin Townes Earle needs to take a vacation.
Single Mothers is a short, lackluster set of tunes that are devoid of energy, inspiration and gusto. With only three songs on the album over three minutes long, it’s obvious that they were not fully developed and probably needed a couple months to mature and evolve. Ironically, the focus of this album is not being as young as he used to, and you can definitely hear that in every song here.
Not to get technical, but what’s overwhelmingly most upsetting about this record is the drums and mixing. The drummer, if this person is real and not a drum machine, could be easily outclassed by a robot. More than half of this album is a terrible mismatch of drumming and Americana style, and sounds like Earle was forced into singing these songs three clicks faster than he’d want them. The first song “Worried Bout The Weather” literally sounds like he’s got a metronome playing in a soul number, which is a blatant misstep and erases all profundity the song could have possessed. The mixer’s offense is mixing the drums too loud throughout the record. With the absolute incompetence of this drummer, the high frequency snare is overly distracting in the majority of the pieces and makes every song sound muffled in comparison. The last song on the album, “Burning Pictures”, is a perfect example of bad mixing. This song should have been filled with energy and tons of space, however the end result is a muted, one level song that lacks any hint of vitality to no fault of the lyrics, melody, or vocals.
Single Mothers sounds tired, worn out and old. The songs have not realized their full potential, and the drummer needs to be fired. There are a few decent songs on here, like “Picture in a Drawer” and “It’s Cold in This House”, but overall you can give this album a miss. As a fan of Earle, here’s hoping the next one shows a little more life shining through.
Rating: Semi-obnoxious
