Robert Francis + The End Times - Vol.1 (Album Review)
Unbound by genre, Robert Francis’ latest record is the unlikely betrothal of Tom Pettyish classic rock to 90s Radioheadia. Dalliances with Americana, Jazz and 60s psych leave their mark on this otherwise most stable of marriages within which Francis dissects - often ambivalently - the regret and restlessness of human relationships. There are those that are destructive, those that are desperate and those that have long since disintegrated and alongside, of course, there is the ever-changing relationship with the self.
Conceived on a road trip from Nashville to Francis’ native L.A., the album has an overarching motif of roadrunning, which will sit well with anyone who gets clarity and perspective on a problem by taking a long, reflective drive. Lead single ‘Coast’ is one of the few songs on the album that looks forward on that road rather being mired in looking back. The song’s Thom Yorkish falsetto verse give way to a full-throated, all-American chorus wherein Francis voices an urgent need to be - as this Englishman might say - beside the seaside. This hope is set against the could’ve-beens of chugging rocker ‘Down The Line’; the bitterness of ‘Copy Comic’; the loss of ‘Boy Like That’ and the tragedy of ‘Paradise’. With all of these journeys doomed with dead ends, it’s no wonder sprawling opener ‘Somewhere Trains’ is more about the desire to stay put and to bury your sorrows in Nowheresville.
Francis has assembled a band of buddies for this road trip of reflection, noting that “there's something about playing with your best friends …that yields the best music” and there are some quirks to this particular ensemble that you’d never get with a roomful of sessioneers working to a brief. Special mention must be made of the conga-sprinkled acid trip interlude during ‘Boy Like That’ and the smoky jazz-club vibe of ‘Loose Conditions’, which features the double-bass of Paul Defiglia and piano of Matt Heasly. Lyrically there’s a healthy amount of uncertainty too, and as you work your way through the record’s stories it’s sometimes hard to tell who’s being cursed and who’s being comforted. And, as self-awareness blurs into self-loathing, it’s hard to know which damned, deluded or damaged character we ought to feel sorriest for.
The blistering, Teddy Thompsonish ‘Built To Last’ and the high-octane Springsteenisms of the aforementioned ‘Down The Line’ - replete with saxophone - herald a late surge of gems in the album’s second half, peaking with the hard truths of the incredible ‘What It’s Like’. The song’s iconic harmonica line (as plaintive as any by Neil Young) stands as a perfect balance to the gathering drums and charging guitars of its chorus: “You done a bad thing for a good reason” goes the tagline, which neatly wraps the song’s lyrical wisdom into one perfect hook.
Artists often glibly claim that they’re going for a ‘classic’ or ‘timeless’ sound, and what singer-songwriter worth their Ernie Balls wouldn’t want their latest album to be described as such? In pursuit of these labels, many contemporary acts feel a need to channel the inward-looking godparents of the genre with a sound lifted from some mythic mid-70s America but what is most refreshing about this album is that it owes an equal debt to the ragged indie rock of the 1990s. From a songwriter’s point of view there’s nothing more classic than a set of songs as sad and unredemptive as those assembled here but few manage to dress them with as much urgency and direction as Robert Francis. There’s a neatness in his ability to pick through the bones of recent musical decades with the same care as he picks through the bones of all those human relationships and it’s the wedding of the two that makes this a very special record indeed. But, because his words are much less clumsy than mine, I’ll let him sum up: “You’re walking through the graveyard/In your Sunday’s best/Where the old versions of yourself/Are laid to rest.”
Review by Rich Barnard
A new name to me, but based on the new EP, ‘Tigers in Your Backyard (Nocturnal Edition)’, Molly Murphy is one to watch. Initially, Molly embarked on a promising college career as a double Film and English Major pursuing a career in screenwriting but left all that behind to form a band (as you do). Murphy’s latest release finds the singer-songwriter adding a modern sheen to her traditional Celtic roots.