| | | Ratings (4) |
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| 3.0 good | theBonerKing | April 25th 24 |
Everything the Hard Way, John Moreland's last studio album released before coming to greater prominence with 2013's In the Throes and his only billed with The Dust Bowl Souls as a backing band, is a set of mostly short, straightforward Southern rock songs, quite different from the comparatively mellow, lyric-centric but emotionally intense singer/songwriter Americana-folk he would later master. There are hints of that here (the brief opening title track, "Gods" and "This Town Tonight"), but the rest of the songs here sound basically nothing like anything Moreland has done since. Self-released, it's an incredibly authentic-sounding album, the sort of thing one could imagine buying as a cheaply-produced CD after a show by a local act. While the melodies and riffs are far from original and certainly do not do anything flashy, these songs are sturdy, heartfelt, and catchy. Moreland and co. know to keep things brief, so no song overstays its welcome, and the whole set comes in under 30 minutes, which makes the album quite listenable and replayable. Unfortunately, the lyrical content is also more generic than Moreland's typical fare, mostly conjuring images and feelings of youth and high school but mostly lacking the level of insight and craft of wordplay Moreland is known for. Again, this straightforward approach mostly works, so on the whole Everything the Hard Way is a very enjoyable release but probably not worth investigating for anybody who isn't already an established fan of Moreland's work.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 3.5 great | NorthernSkylark | February 10th 22 |
Why the hell did I have to fall in love
I wanna become who I used to pretend I was
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