Immortal Americans
Cornelius Chapel, 2019
9/10
Austin Lucas has had quite a varied career, shifting from the hardcore punk musician of his formative years to the country music crooner he is today. Immortal Americans, his 7th studio album, has a now sober and much healthier Lucas working alongside the legendary producer Steve Albini as his backing band plays live on this gritty yet beautiful record.
The title track starts the listen with a bare guitar as Lucas sings with both emotion and expressiveness, and builds into a duet with a warm, Americana delivery amid a working class quality, and “Killing Time” follows with a folk-like appeal alongside pedal steel and comforting vocals from Lucas.
Elsewhere, “Monroe County Nights” brings a percussively strong and musically agile atmosphere of rural melodies, while “My Mother And The Devil” finds Lucas and company entering more traditional country music territory with plenty of ruggedness. “The Shadow And Marie”, one of the album’s strongest tracks, has Lucas exploring his vocal range in an emotive atmosphere on a tune about his then partner’s cancer diagnosis.
Towards the end, a banjo and upbeat percussion highlight the playful “Goat And Goose”, where his sister, Chole Manor, lends a hand on vocals, and “Shallow Inland Sea” exits the listen bare, elegant and poetic with a timeless demeanor.
Always intimate, and often lush, too, Lucas pulls off an amazing vocal performance (he had also recently quit cigarettes), as his alt-country formula has never sounded so confident and urgent in his esteemed career. A record that was made during much transition and tragedy in his life, Lucas certainly parlayed it in exceptional art with Immortal Americans.
Travels well with: Possessed By Paul James- As We Go Wandering; Cory Branan- The No-Hit Wonder