Nathaniel Rateliff has had quite the ride, eh?
This raw, yowling album — his first in seven years — navigates marriage breakdown and the death of a close friend (and that’s just the first two tracks). But any artist knows there’s poetry in love and loss, and Rateliff’s powerful storytelling is brought to life by his throaty, mellifluous growl that keeps things moving, not mawkish.
Highlights are plentiful. In What a Drag, he’s in full Americana troubadour mode, drawling about loneliness and accompanied by the bass-heavy polish of some of his Night Sweats bandmates. Expecting to Lose is a toe-tapping cautionary tale about excess and Tonight #2 an existential howl that conjures the dizziness of a man on stage in the midst of a crisis.
But it is And it’s Still Alright — an ode to friend and producer Richard Swift, who died of complications related to alcoholism — that really lingers: angry yet mournful yet bewildered. It’s an extraordinary track with a touch of Johnny Cash about it.
