Of all the varieties of country, folk, blues and genre-twisting hybrids gathered under the catch-all of Americana, Punch Brothers are surely among the strangest. The five-piece owe their existence to the decision of mandolin player Chris Thile to quit the enormously successful bluegrass trio Nickel Creek in 2006 in favour of something more challenging. Not that Punch Brothers were routine traditionalists – they happily covered Radiohead and Britney Spears – but Thile’s vision was of something more like country chamber music.
Their debut featured a four-part, 40-minute suite. This sixth album maintains Thile’s ambition, a concept album he calls “a meditation on committed relationships in the present political climate”. Several of its songs are as opaque as that description. “I cheat like the daisies in the field,” he confesses on Just Look at This Mess. His delicate vocals and allusive imagery shine more brightly on The Gardener and Jumbo – the latter clearly about Trump – while there’s no shortage of dazzling playing from a group that have the intuition of a jazz combo, with odd changes of tempo, and a couple of instrumentals to let rip their bluegrass picking. A curious curate’s egg.
