Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do (2010)

Have DBT really released 8 to 11 albums, depending on how you count? It's only shocking because I still remember my first listen and the moment I was initially blown away by their roaring southern rock chords. Although, admittedly, my interest has faded since Jason Isbell branched off on his own, nevertheless DBT still undoubtedly delivers some of the best alternative country / southern rock being manufactured today. Patterson Hood, the constant songwriter with the whiskey & cigarettes rasp, pulls more material from hard times, rough lives, scraping-by and indulging heavily, making for an album packed with hard-rocking recession anthems. Perhaps the heaviest hitting jam however is Mike Cooley's "Birthday Boy," about the depressingly unglamorous life of a call girl sweating her nights away for a measly income. I think it's fair to say that this is a political album at it's core, and in many cases you don't have to read very far into the lyrics to realize rural, southern America has been in a recession (in one form or another) since... maybe forever. "This Fucking Job" sums up the tone of album quite nicely by addressing the epically painful experience of being stuck in a dead-end, no-way-out job, but being thankful that at the very least you still have one. DBT have returned to rocking hard, with ripping chords, rugged vocals and real-talk lyrics. This is a solid effort that should make the DBT faithful, my self included, quite satisfied.