Album Review – Justin Townes Earle’s “Absent Fathers”
See, this is why we’re fans of music. Because there’s something about the perseverance of the human spirit wrapped in every single piece of audio material, and every single album, regardless of how good it is. We have artists that we follow, that we’re fans of, not just because they do things that seem esoteric, but because they’re human and apt to fail, and then right when you start to doubt them, they will prove to you why you believed in them from the beginning and dove head first into their music, listening to everything you could get your hands on, driving too far see them at a show on a Wednesday night two towns over and paying for it at work the next day from lack of sleep.
Going into it, I gave Justin Townes Earle’s Absent Fathers very little chance. It’s not that the precursor, or orphaned other half to this now reunited double album called Single Mothers was so bad, it just felt uninspired, lacking direction, with not a lot of creativity or spice to the approach. And I wasn’t alone in this assessment. You just got the sense that Justin Townes Earle was mailing it in. The album before it, the loquaciously-titled 2012 offering Nothing Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now was a creeper of an album if there ever was one. I cautioned in my review to listen to it intently, and repeatedly, and eventually the genius would reveal itself; so much so I eventually boosted the grade on the review some months later.
Taking my own advice, I listened to Single Mothers ad nauseam, and it was excruciating; with little eventual payoff. I just felt like I was listening to the plateauing of what once was one of the most promising new artists in Americana. Before there was the big success of Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, or Shovels & Rope, there was Justin Townes Earle, the son of an alt-country legend named for a songwriting genius that GQ named one of the 25 most stylish men in America. He was the next great hope of independent music, and we’d got to watch him from the ground floor.
But Single Mothers felt like the eventual moment in every artist’s career when the fire subsides, the hunger wanes, they get married, and just want the process of making music and making money from it to be easy. Justin Townes Earle had sat down in this sort of pseudo Motown and Memphis under-developed sound enveloping mostly-decent lyrics that still left some to be desired from the lofty standards he’d previously set.
READ: Album Review Justin Townes Earle’s “Single Mothers”
So if Single Mothers didn’t work out as planned, why get your hopes up at the prospects of Absent Fathers? Even Justin Townes Earle on his Twitter page on the Tuesday of the release said, “I didn’t know my record came out today! Holy shit!” There didn’t really seem to be any sizable push for the album. No excitement. It may have not even been my most-anticipated album released this week at Saving Country Music headquarters. Then you start diving into Absent Fathers, and the first two songs start off where Single Mothers left off—that pseudo Motown sound I referenced above. And just when you’re about ready to stick this CD in your drawer of coasters, that brilliance, that magic that made you a Justin Townes Earle fan to begin with, and stick with him even though the revelations about personal demons and the reality that he really isn’t country anymore, reveals itself with shimmering brilliance.
The realization started with the song “Least I Got The Blues.” It starts off with Earle’s signature strum/pluck style of playing acoustic guitar—a standard of the Justin Townes Earle sound that he never seems to fare too well shying away from. Then it’s the crafty lyricism as he tries to do his muse Woody Guthrie justice. Yes, she’s gone, but he’s still got the blues to keep him company. No whooly original, but still brilliant.
“Call Ya Momma” keeps the winning streak going, despite not being as stripped down, which is another key to revealing the JTE magic. I swear Justin says the phrase “call ya momma” on this album almost as many times as Florida Georgia Line says “girl” in a summer hit, but it never feels tired, it’s the glue that binds the record together thematically, and then forms the bridge to Single Mothers.
Then Justin Townes Earle hits you with “Day and Night,” maybe his magnum songwriting opus, or at least it should be considered in that company from his body of work. The less Justin Townes Earle does in a song, the better the music gets. Sure you have to have some songs help cleanse the palette with a full band experience, and set the contrast for the quieter moments. But alone or with a lone accompaniment is where he positively shines.
One of the excellent decisions with Absent Fathers is to drench this record in stand up steel guitar. Not pedal steel guitar, but its old pedal-less predecessor that has an especially classic, lonesome sound. And never has Justin captured emotion in his voice like in the moments of “Day and Night.” This is grab a Kleenex, thick and heavy shit here that is very hard to behold without breaking out in sniffles. This is Justin Townes Earle doing his name(s) proud.
“Slow Monday” employs a similar stripped down setup of just Justin and a steel guitar, and once again it captures the ideal mood of classic Justin Townes Earle. “When The One You Love Loses Faith” and “Someone Will Pay” are nothing special, again calling on that sort of tired JTE Memphis style, but now that you’ve been buttered up by his austere approach to instrumentation, you’re more susceptible to hearing the joy and artistry in these more produced songs as well. Then once again Earle sends the band down the street for coffee and the emptiness reveals his genius in “Looking For A Place To Land.”
The next piece of business is to ask if Absent Fathers somehow redeems Single Mothers. I think this may be somewhat of a stretch, but I will give it credit for a slight elevation. Absent Fathers has its warts too—a few tracks that could have been swapped for the better ones from Singles Mothers, resulting in one superlative album. But this isn’t fantasy football, and regardless of how flawed the logic or process was that got us to the conclusion of this double album, the result was overall a positive one, and one that doesn’t just reassure us that all that time spent listening to Justin Townes Earle in the past wasn’t for naught, but that he’s still the singular performer and songwriter we thought we always knew and loved.
1 3/4 of 2 Guns Up.
– – – – – – – – – – –
January 15, 2015 @ 10:12 am
I think I am one of the few that really enjoyed single mothers, but with that said this new one is a classic. It was cold and rainy out when I threw this album on and it was just one of those moments were I kept thinking that THIS is why I am thankful for JTE and the music he makes.
January 15, 2015 @ 11:10 am
I think I am one of the few that really enjoyed single mothers
I’m with you there. Hope my copy of Absent Fathers arrives soon, as this review has raised my anticipation level.
January 15, 2015 @ 11:23 am
That spooky stand-up steel guitar sound really elevates the whole record. A great example of how a slightly different approach to instrumentation and timbre can change the whole package dramatically.
January 15, 2015 @ 11:24 am
I was just laying the couch last night downloading the songs I liked best just to realize I like the whole album. I couldn’t help but wonder why this one was so much better than Single Mothers.
January 15, 2015 @ 11:39 am
I couldn’t agree more with this review. Day and Night and Slow Monday stood out like the rectangle thing from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
January 15, 2015 @ 12:10 pm
Well, thanks to your post, I’m intrigued. I was so disillusioned by Single Mothers that I thought I was done with JTE. As an early fan, I couldn’t understand why Single Mothers was receiving any attention; it seemed like a betrayal of everything that made JTE’s earlier work so special. So now I want to hear Absent Fathers; I hope Justin is back on track.
January 15, 2015 @ 3:41 pm
I am SO happy to read this. After Single Mothers I wasn’t even going to bother buying this new offering. Thanks for the awesome review. I’m gonna go out and buy it today. Sounds like a good reason to take the Lord of The Rings soundtrack off repeat!
January 15, 2015 @ 3:43 pm
I have Harlem river blues, any advice on another JTE album I should get? I want more
January 15, 2015 @ 4:04 pm
If you’re only getting one more, I’d say Midnight at the Movies. Next, I’d recommend Absent Fathers, followed by The Good Life. And after that I’d say it’s a tie between Single Mothers and Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel about Me now, even though they each have some decent songs on them.
January 15, 2015 @ 5:16 pm
I can’t recommend his debut EP Yuma enough. It’s just JTE and a guitar. You pretty much can’t go wrong, though Single Mothers isn’t his best work.
January 16, 2015 @ 9:30 am
I’d suggest you buy them in chronological order starting with Yuma, then you can appreciate the whole JTE experience. Soaring heights with the occasional bump/pothole in the road.
January 16, 2015 @ 1:16 pm
I would have to agree by going chronological order. Although I would say my favorite is Midnight at the Movies. I really enjoyed single mothers so I personally don’t think you can go wrong with any of the music he as put out.
January 15, 2015 @ 8:32 pm
Based on this review, I’ll give Fathers a listen or two. I didn’t hate Mothers – just felt neutral about it, which is sometimes worse than hate.
January 16, 2015 @ 1:53 pm
Jeeze after being underwhelmed by Single Mothers I was wondering if this would be much the same since it was recorded along side SMs. I hafta check it out for sure now.
BTW this blog just keeps getting better and better.
January 16, 2015 @ 7:17 pm
Like nearly everyone above, it seems, I was right off of Single Mothers. Like… a few songs were OK, but the whole thing felt completely aimless and rote, JTE’s songwriting especially. This review means I’m now going out to buy the new album. Thanks dude.
January 16, 2015 @ 7:55 pm
Trig, you gave Single Mothers 1.5 guns up yet basically ripped it to shreds above. I agree with what you say. I think its a bland, monotonous and boring album. So why the 1.5 stars? At best shouldn’t it have gotten zero guns (meaning mediocre considering an album can get two guns down)? 1.5 on your scale would be considered pretty darn good.
January 17, 2015 @ 9:33 pm
This is a good question. I was a little surprised I gave “Single Mothers” such a high grade as well. Remembering back though, I think I rationalized that there was nothing particularly wrong with the album, just nothing particularly right. If I’m sitting on the bubble about what to grade something, I’m always going to cheat it higher.
January 19, 2015 @ 3:17 pm
Good album. Definitely the better of the two albums, I think. There’s something really weird and distracting about the drums though. Like they’re WAY outside of the mix, floating separate from everything.
January 19, 2015 @ 6:03 pm
… right when you start to doubt them, they will prove to you why you believed in them from the beginning and dove head first into their music…”
Too bad this hasn’t happened with Hank3 yet. Sure, I haven’t been a fan of his for very long, but I’ve also never had such a short peak of appreciation crash and burn so quickly, either. Regardless, good review, Trigger. I notice that you didn’t say anything about the cover art after having lauded the work on Single Mothers. Why do you suppose Absent Fathers is so much more sterile a visual than its sister? The innocence and disillusionment of childhood having subsided at this given time?
On another note, I’ve come to realize that critics are an interesting bunch. For instance, independent critics like yourself and others tend to laud praise or heap criticism with a rare middle ground. Mainstream critics, by contrast, are a bit more welcoming to what we rip apart around here and a bit less ecstatic about what is lauded. I’m a regular reader of AllMusic and they haven’t rated a Justin Townes Earle album above a four star rating (out of five). Most peculiar, his opus Midnight at the Movies only warranted 3 & 1/2 stars from the outlet. They also awarded Sturgill Simpson’s two albums four stars each, which equates to an 8/10, a far cry from the perfect scores of less prominent outlets. What’s the deal, here?
January 19, 2015 @ 10:08 pm
I really like the cover concept on this album too. The two covers together are an excellent concept and JTE deserves high praise for them.
Critics writing for major outlets and even many smaller outlets don’t have the latitude to be honest about their opinions or really offer any serious criticism constructive or otherwise because the labels and publicity firms who put out the albums are also the biggest advertisers for these outlets. It’s a completely delusional system that rewards business relationships over music, true journalism and honesty, and creates an unhealthy environment for the creative process. That’s why savingcountrymusic.com has no sponsors. The only way I am able to do what I do is because I make no money doing it. If I had any music sponsor or big corporate brand sponsor, they would almost immediately be turned off by my coverage and have to distance. So I use generic ads that pay out at about a 1/4 rate as paid advertisers and eat ramen. But I get to say what I want. Something tells me the joke’s on me.
January 20, 2015 @ 9:07 pm
I figured it might be something like that, but then one wonders why anything negative (if only superficially) would come from a mainstream outlet. And not that they specialize in country music, but perhaps you should attempt to be sponsored by the Fueled By Ramen record label? 😛
On a separate note, what happened to the “like” option in the comments?
January 20, 2015 @ 9:41 pm
The “like” option believe it or not was the culprit for the site crashing a couple of weeks ago amidst the mashup video viral event, not the viral event itself. All the extra traffic just exacerbated the problem. I am hoping to re-institute it eventually, but some other technical work has to be done first.
January 20, 2015 @ 9:48 pm
The site crashed? I check it at least twice a day on average, and the only thing I noticed was that one day I kept getting redirected to some spam sites. However, it only happened on my phone so I assumed it was just from that outlet. Otherwise I haven’t noticed anything else.
March 24, 2015 @ 1:55 pm
Update: Eh, I was hoping Absent Fathers would curb my distaste for JTE’s recent material. Alas, I’m thinking this will be the last album I buy with his name on it, barring a radical new direction (which I highly doubt since he’s been making the same album for the last three). I’m not sure why, I just don’t like this stripped-down acoustic blues direction that Earle’s been going for the past few years. In my opinion, his voice is too weak to carry the melody on its own and the fact that the same few instruments are used on more or less every track makes them run together unless you’re paying extreme attention to what he’s saying and how he’s saying it. There have been times during these last couple of albums when I didn’t even notice the track changed, and I can’t help it if I’m not stimulated by the material and my mind wanders. Not only do the songs sound the same, but the tone and lyrical material rarely fluctuates; pretty much every song is a slow burner in which Earle recounts some melancholy poetry about a lover or bad times. I can handle repetitive lyrics if the music is interesting but Justin Townes Earle has had trouble with both lately.
I’d rate this one as 1 Gun Up, 1 Gun Down. I don’t hate it, but I’d be hard pressed to say that it made much of an impression on me. It’s mostly just boring, and that’s coming from someone that enjoyed every one of his releases until Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now. I love acoustic material (Days Of The New’s self-titled album from 1997 has been in heavy rotation with me lately) but the compositions have to have something other than sound to carry them.
January 29, 2015 @ 10:09 pm
Wow. Couldn’t disagree more with this review, or at least half of it. Don’t get me wrong: I love the new album, too (although, I’d say “Farther from Me” is among the best tracks). However, in my humble opinion, Single Mothers is brilliant, from the opening moment, straight on through, with the exception of the dreary and meandering “It’s Cold in this House.” Picture in a Draw has three killer lines that make it a classic of modern country. The track “Single Mothers” gets better and better, especially if you’ve lived it.
But frankly, I think this is what makes JTE such a compelling artist. His songs clearly appeal to a broad range of listeners, each of whom seems to want him to make a particular type of music. And then they get annoyed when he doesn’t do what they’ve come to expect of him. And he simply does give a rat’s ass, and keeps pushing in different directions. At the end of the day, you can take the Simpsons, and the Millsaps, and the Isbells, and the rest of the group. They all stay in the safe country range, which is clearly an easier place to be.
I’ll take Earle’s persistent changing and struggle. It makes him, humble opinion here, the best songwriter under 40 alive today, and the most interesting since the young Dylan. And he hasn’t even hit his stride.
He’s going to nail it eventually. And when he does, we’ll look back on all of these albums, 1-7, as unfolding genius.
January 30, 2015 @ 11:44 pm
I appreciate you sharing your opinion Andrew.
One thing I would like to clarify. Just because this is primarily a country music website does not mean I come to the Justin Townes Earle experience from the outside looking in, nor would I characterize Jason Isbell as residing safely in country music either. I have named Justin Townes Earle my “Artist of the Year” (for whatever that’s worth) twice—something no other artist has the distinction of. I also broke the news about him being arrested in Indianapolis when he went on a drunken rampage. I’ve been following Justin Townes Earle very deeply for many years, arguably just as much, if not more than anyone else. I’m not bragging, I just want you to know I take the business of sharing my opinions very seriously, and though you may disagree with my assessment, I gave “Single Mothers” a very thorough listen and ponder before posting my review. Also, despite my concerns with the album, I still gave it a positive review. But I believed, along with many others who opinions you can read in this very comment section, felt like it wasn’t his best effort. But they’re just opinions, and what fun would it be if we all had the same one?
February 9, 2015 @ 8:46 am
Not really sure why the reviewer has such harsh words for Single Mothers, I enjoyed it, there are a couple of skippers on there, but in general I really liked it. I tend to agree that the more stripped down songs are where JTE shines, but the fuller arrangements certainly aren’t bad. Having seen JTE live several times, I feel like all of his albums are pretty solid, especially his live performance of tracks from each of them. Harlem River Blues is possible my favourite of his catalog, but there are no less than 5-6 songs on each of his 3 subsequent albums that I really love. I do think that the top tracks from SM and AF could have been put together and created one kick ass album to mark the beginning of his work with Vagrant Records, but I enjoy both albums as complimentary pieces of a whole. On a somewhat unrelated note, it is truly fantastic to see JTE looking so very healthy, he seems to be in a really good place and I look very much forward to hearing more awesome things from him in the future.
July 3, 2015 @ 4:22 pm
I discovered JTE with this blog, back in the good life days… I feel like I’m the only one who really like Nothing’s gonna change the way you feel. I really like his way of using fuller arrangements, somehow reminding me of Elvis Costello. It’s probably because country music is an acquired taste for me, and I like some subgenres of it only, but I find him more on spot when diversifying himself. That being said, I didn’t like single mothers that much.
September 8, 2015 @ 4:35 am
I haven’t visited this site since around the time NGCTWYFAMN first came out and I remember then it was getting very mixed reviews, Trigger wasn’t too keen on it as well. I see from this article that Trigger went back later and changed the review for the better and I’m glad he did because that album definitely deserves it. I commented more than once on that review because, not only was I arguing in favor of the album’s greatness, I was able to play it in it’s entirety a handful of times after the first couple of days of release and, therefore, was fortunate enough to let it’s different sound sink in early. I was also one of the few ppl commenting that believed early on that NGCTWYFABMN was equal and possibly better than Midnight At The Movies (widely viewed as his best work). The only thing I found lacking was his vocal strength. He often runs out of breath and lacks the vocal sharpness found on his earlier albums. This is especially apparent when compared to his voice on Yuma and The Good Life where he often sang in a higher twangy, swingy, sometimes w/ a Hank Williams-esque tone, and even had a fast spitfire lyrical delivery on more than one song. Recording the songs live with the full band doing no vocal overdubs definitely attributes to this. Also, and unfortunately, it’s also because his voice at that point simply wasn’t as strong as it once was. Not an objective opinion, watch different performances spanning his career and you will see an obvious decline in power and breath. This didn’t bother me (maybe I was slightly bummed) because the songs were excellent and were accommodating to the loss of vocal power so the album still sounded well performed and natural. NOW, TO THE ALBUM(S) AT HAND… I came here to read Trigger’s review and to voice my disappointment but decided to give Absent Fathers another listen after reading that Trigger reviewed it positively despite his negative review of it’s counterpart Single Mothers. This made me notice that SIngle Mothers left a ban enough taste in my mouth that I never gave Absent Fathers the time it deserves and was unfairly bundling the two together as one single body of work. So I won’t speak on Absent Fathers. All my babbling about his deteriorating vocal ability holds even more weight on Single Mothers because the writing on Single Mothers isn’t anywhere near a great as what it once was and this(the vocals) alone was enough to turn me off of Single Mothers. There are plenty of other downsides but that is the biggest one for me. Crooning would be the one word the describes his new style of singing most closely, I guess. The lyrics/delivery seem to just ramble on and on with no melodic direction of cohesion and it leaves the entire album with no identity, no playback value. There is nothing I can enjoy singing along to. Those heart wrenching lyrics, the ones that were capable of jolting me into concentration and warranted the cravings to go back and revisit them, are completely void of existence. If they do, the melodies with which they are delivered are distracting enough that the lyrics don’t stick. Honestly, I always preferred his one man live performance versions of all of his songs to the band back album recordings so hopefully i’ll one day have the patience to look the songs from Single Mothers up on youtube and be able to view their solo performance counterparts in a more positive light. And I REALLY hope my ear hears in Absent Fathers what Trigger’s ear hears because I am one sad JTE fan at the moment.