Micah P. Hinson and the Pioneer Saboteurs

There are strings aplenty, arranged as baroque lullabies or strange waltzes, Hinson shuffling his sorrows against a backdrop of multitracked choirs and fractured noise. Incredibly addictive. [Jul 2010, p.116]

There are few voices in contemporary alt-country quite so adept at wresting consolation from the depths of despair as Hinson's sonorous baritone. [Jul 2010, p.133]

Its troubled state suits the melancholy in Hinson's soul, his broken burr laid like a wreath across lingering strings and the wistfulTexas twang of his tunes. [Jul 2010, p.104]

Some might find all this misery, whether it's stripped back like Sweetness or as explosive as She's Building Castles in Her Heart , a little masochistic for their tastes. Those, however, who have followed Hinson's career since 2004's debut, The Gospel of Progress, will be relieved by a compelling return to Gothic American themes which repays their early conviction that he is a unique songwriter capable of converting lyrical gloom into musical glory.

There are a lot of sweeping strings throughout ...and the Pioneer Saboteurs, but don't come along expecting a smooth ride. Although he might look and occasionally sound like Richard Hawley's younger, scruffier brother, Hinson shares little of the Brit's romance here.