Artist: Patterson Hood
Album: Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs)
Year: 2009
Grade: 4 pretzels
Patterson Hood is one of my all-time, favorite songwriters. He’s also one of the least recognized, since he serves as the leader of the Drive-By Truckers, a band that hasn’t quite crossed over into that next level of visibility. However, with the Truckers, Hood has amassed a gargantuan body of work showcasing his unique views on the South and all the little complexities that come with being southern. Now, Hood has released Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs), a grab bag collection of songs written during many different times in his life. As prolific as Hood is with the Truckers, this album proves that he’s hidden away plenty of gems over the years that somehow never made it onto his main band’s albums.
Of course, the fact that all these tracks were written years, sometimes decades apart would lead you to believe that the album would be a wild, inconsistent one, prone to erratic jumps in style and content. Somehow, that’s not the case. Murdering Oscar holds together surprisingly well, thanks in part to a fantastic ordering of the tracks. Hood’s smoldering rock songs are nestled up next to his catchier tunes and emotional ballads. Perhaps the reason the album feels so complete is because Hood can write in all these different styles while still retaining his painstaking attention to detail and storytelling. Hood has more than proven himself as a versatile songwriter.
Without other songwriters adding different flavors to the mix, as is the case with all of the Truckers’ albums, Murdering Oscar does have a few stretches where Hood’s songs begin to feel a bit repetitive. The overall quality of songwriting feels a notch or two below what I’ve come to expect from an album by the Truckers. However, Hood finds space for some of his best songs on Murdering Oscar. The requisite blistering southern rock has two strong representatives, in the form of the opening title track and “Heavy And Hanging”, a song dating back to the early 90s. At the other end of the spectrum, “Pride Of The Yankees” is a gorgeous piano ballad, which addresses Hood’s young son, wanting to protect him from what Hood perceives as a country falling apart in the wake of 9/11. It’s the kind of song any other songwriter would ruin by turning it into a gloopy celebration of patriotism, but Hood pulls it off by injecting the song with the perfect amount of truly honest sentiment.
The album’s strangest highlight is “Belvedere”, which is probably my favorite song musically on the album, but features some rather squirm-inducing lyrics. Over a tension-filled guitar line, Hood tells about how “last night I dreamt of a high school girl”, before whisking her away in his car, away from her overbearing parents and friends. There’s something very touching about the empathy Hood shows for this girl, but within a song that very well appears to be about an underage romantic relationship, the listener is caught between a series of conflicting emotional responses. However, I see that as yet a further example of Hood’s brilliance as a songwriter. His uncanny ability to create detailed characters and situations in his songs, while still making personal statements about the world as he sees it, is virtually unmatched among contemporary musicians. Hopefully, with the release of Murdering Oscar, Hood will start getting the mountains of respect he deserves.
Note: Not unlike this year's other solo Trucker record, Jason Isbell's self-titled album from back in February, YouTube apparently doesn't have any high-quality clips of the songs I've talked about in this review. So, instead, I'm sharing a decent live video of Patterson performing "She's A Little Randy", which isn't one of my favorite Murdering Oscar tracks, but gives you a decent sense of Patterson's persona and general style. Enjoy.
Of course, the fact that all these tracks were written years, sometimes decades apart would lead you to believe that the album would be a wild, inconsistent one, prone to erratic jumps in style and content. Somehow, that’s not the case. Murdering Oscar holds together surprisingly well, thanks in part to a fantastic ordering of the tracks. Hood’s smoldering rock songs are nestled up next to his catchier tunes and emotional ballads. Perhaps the reason the album feels so complete is because Hood can write in all these different styles while still retaining his painstaking attention to detail and storytelling. Hood has more than proven himself as a versatile songwriter.
Without other songwriters adding different flavors to the mix, as is the case with all of the Truckers’ albums, Murdering Oscar does have a few stretches where Hood’s songs begin to feel a bit repetitive. The overall quality of songwriting feels a notch or two below what I’ve come to expect from an album by the Truckers. However, Hood finds space for some of his best songs on Murdering Oscar. The requisite blistering southern rock has two strong representatives, in the form of the opening title track and “Heavy And Hanging”, a song dating back to the early 90s. At the other end of the spectrum, “Pride Of The Yankees” is a gorgeous piano ballad, which addresses Hood’s young son, wanting to protect him from what Hood perceives as a country falling apart in the wake of 9/11. It’s the kind of song any other songwriter would ruin by turning it into a gloopy celebration of patriotism, but Hood pulls it off by injecting the song with the perfect amount of truly honest sentiment.
The album’s strangest highlight is “Belvedere”, which is probably my favorite song musically on the album, but features some rather squirm-inducing lyrics. Over a tension-filled guitar line, Hood tells about how “last night I dreamt of a high school girl”, before whisking her away in his car, away from her overbearing parents and friends. There’s something very touching about the empathy Hood shows for this girl, but within a song that very well appears to be about an underage romantic relationship, the listener is caught between a series of conflicting emotional responses. However, I see that as yet a further example of Hood’s brilliance as a songwriter. His uncanny ability to create detailed characters and situations in his songs, while still making personal statements about the world as he sees it, is virtually unmatched among contemporary musicians. Hopefully, with the release of Murdering Oscar, Hood will start getting the mountains of respect he deserves.
Note: Not unlike this year's other solo Trucker record, Jason Isbell's self-titled album from back in February, YouTube apparently doesn't have any high-quality clips of the songs I've talked about in this review. So, instead, I'm sharing a decent live video of Patterson performing "She's A Little Randy", which isn't one of my favorite Murdering Oscar tracks, but gives you a decent sense of Patterson's persona and general style. Enjoy.
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