Son Volt: American Central Dust (Rounder, 2009)

I often forget the fact that Son Volt is a really great band that has released a bunch of fine alt.country albums and one real classic of the genre called Trace.  They certainly must have something good going on, if I buy their album every time. However, American Central Dust doesn’t rank among their finest work. Even though it’s a solid beautiful country album, there’s not enough real jewels to be completely excited about it. No Turning Back, Roll On and Jukebox Of Steel are my big favourites on the new album. Most of the other songs are good too, but American Central Dust would have needed more rock stuff and rougher corners. I do love rootsy music, I do love ballads and I do love love pedal & lap steel, but if there’s almost nothing else than slow or mid-tempo country songs  there’s a danger that it starts to get boring in the long run no matter how thoughtful and how beautifully crafted they are.

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