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- Record Label: Thirty Tigers
- Release Date: Feb 17, 2009
- Summary: The second album post-Drive-By Truckers for the singer-songwriter from Alabama is the first to feature The 400 Unit.
- Record Label: Thirty Tigers
- Genre(s): Rock, Alternative, Country
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 8 out of 14
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Mixed: 6 out of 14
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Negative: 0 out of 14
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The result is that, in both content and form, The 400 Unit is an unapologetically Southern album, and the lived-in authenticity of its performances, masterful songwriting, and fierce intelligence also make it one of the finest albums of what has already been a strong year for popular music.
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With Drive-By Truckers, singer-guitarist Jason Isbell learned to embrace some of those [Southern rock] cliches; on his gritty, vibrant second solo album, he begins to transcend them.
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A tight collection fueled by glints of the rock, soul and country that came out of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., in the '60s and '70s.
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The 400 Unit--named for a mental facility in Isbell’s current hometown of Florence, Ala.--lays out blistering riffs on 'Good' and 'However Long,' but slower songs like the maudlin 'Cigarettes and Wine' and the zitar- and horns-laden 'No Choice in the Matter' are overlong and languid, lacking energy and urgency.
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Isbell’s recitation--defiantly unexciting in its averageness--doesn’t help. But the thing is, the guy can really write.
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With his latest band, the 400 Unit, the former Drive-By Truckers guitarist brings new textures to tracks like the percussion-heavy swamp rock of 'Seven-Mile Island' and vintage-sounding Southern soul of 'No Choice in the Matter.'
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On this new self-titled record, Jason Isbell and his band the 400 Unit sound like they’re still finding their legs.
Score distribution:
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Mixed: 0 out of
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