On his fifth full-length album, Adios, Cory Branan executes a dazzling collection of
genre-crossing, silver-tongued songs with hearts of gold, whiskey breath, doses
of regret and fury. Yet another wildly impressive entry into Branan’s already
esteemed catalog, Adios is an addictive, sprawling 14-song output that whirls
the listener into a musical gale of top-shelf songwriting, each tune as
beguiling as the next for varying highs, that chugs along at expert paces and
results in his finest record yet. At the very least, it’s a lock for the
eventual top rungs of my picks for favorite albums of 2017.
Adios
kicks off surprisingly and swiftly with the infectiously melodic Buddy Holly
bounce of “I Only Know,” flanked by Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace and Dave
Hause. “I was told this road goes straight to hell,” Branan sings on the
album’s opening line before delivering the killer lyric “So what you gonna do
with all that youth? Just because it’s brutal don’t make it truth” in the fashion
Cory Branan does better and more consistently than any songwriter of his
generation. Early single “Imogene” carries that torch even further, showcasing
Branan’s drawled, seemingly inexhaustible vocabulary (“ne’er-do-well roustabout,
detestable itinerate, execrable degenerate”) and wordplay (rhyming hemorrhaging
and Imogene to subtle perfection). All of it would be great enough on paper,
but Branan and his bandmates, Robbie Crowell (formerly of Deer Tick) on drums,
keys, horns and percussion and James “Haggs” Haggerty on bass, propel “Imogene”
and the thirteen other lyrically clever and striking constructions into
indelible, catchy hooks and arrangements across the whole of Adios. With his idiosyncratic way with
words as a songwriter’s songwriter and southerner, it’s never too much of a
stretch to draw a line to Branan as at least some minor shade of modern day
Mark Twain with a guitar.
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Twain is not the only great who comes to mind here,
though: “Blacksburg” has more legitimate E Street shuffle and soul (check that glorious sax solo) than
anything since The Rising, “You Got
Through” channels a Tom Petty snarl with guitar-driven Heartbreakers kick,
“Visiting Hours” rips into deliciously upbeat new wave a la Elvis Costello and
the Attractions with helpings of Branan’s distinctive pathos and punk heart
that surely Costello would’ve been happy to call his own in the glory days of Armed Forces. Shades of Springsteen pop
up elsewhere as well, perhaps most noticeably in the River/Tunnel of Love vibe of the absolute knockout centerpiece “The
Vow,” written in honor and praise of Branan’s deceased father. Even amongst all
the other gems packed throughout Adios,
“The Vow” and the late-album stunner of a duet “Don’t Go” (featuring Amanda
Shires) each pack enough gut-punch power, pulsating life, and stop-you-in-your-tracks
beauty to conjure feelings akin to reading some Great American Novel edited down to a five-minute song. What else
can you possibly ask for from a rock and roll record these days? Well, if
that’s a blistering, mad-as-hell, punk protest anthem to spit piss and ire at
corruption and brutality rallying around a pogoing, poppy chorus befitting of
the Ramones, Branan also has you covered on that front with “Another Nightmare
in America.”
Adios
is already a record I’ve eagerly lived with and obsessed over for weeks. It’s a
towering achievement in an already strong year of rock records. Here’s to
obsessing over it more in the months to come, with the speakers blasting, drinks
in hand and lovers and friends close by to combat the dread of all the wretched
shit clinging to the coattails of all those wolves just outside the door.
Adios
is out April 7, 2017 via Bloodshot Records.
