Widdershinsrelease date: Feb. 23, 2018
format: digital (12 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]
producer: Grant-Lee Phillips
label: Yep Roc Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Walk in Circles" (live) - 5. "Scared Stiff" - 6. "Miss Betsy" - 9. "Totally You Gunslinger" - 10. "History Has Their Number" - 11. "Great Acceleration" (acoustic live)
9th studio album by Grant-Lee Phillips follows two years after The Narrows (Mar. 2016) is much to the usual formula produced by Phillips himself and released on Yep Roc. It's however notably more electrified and rockin' than any other of his solo albums - perhaps out of necessity to balance the strong messages he shouts out - as he says: "it's one of those times where you have to plug the guitar in, and shout to be heard, and raise your voice...". Apparently, Phillips simply felt obliged to speak up against the 2017 nomination as the country's 45th president. And both album title with its reference to 'going backwards' ['widdershins'], be it in terms of moral and progression as a people and a nation, and also echoed in song titles such as "King of Catastrophe", "Totally You Gunslinger", and "History Has Their Number", all dealing with troubled times, wrong directions, gun lovers, and choosing a political 'catastrophe'.
Musically, he has long been tuning into alt. country with equal parts of americana and folk, and with increasingly more acoustic arrangements, but on this he appears to revisit the style of his former band, Grant Lee Buffalo, and its electrifying mix of indie rock and roots rock.
It's really a warm welcome back to a bit of disowned practice of using your platform as an artist to engage yourself with political statements. It sort of reminds me of English Settlement (1982) by XTC, Animals (1977) by Pink Floyd, or the angriest and most classic polical album: What's Going On (1971) by Marvin Gaye - a reaction to the US engagement in Vietnam, and now: an artist so compelled by the political discourse that he has to react the only way it makes sense. Phillips is no modern Marvin Gaye, but he also feels urged to show his discontent with the way his country positions itself.
The result is an album of sheer energy and a bunch of fine tunes. Naturally, the songs are limited to speak of a specific period of time, and in that may contain a thematic limitation but nevertheless, Widdershins is a refreshing boast of energy.
I like it - it's goood!
