Amigo The Devil – Yours Until The War Is Over
Should there be anyone out there still uncertain of the musical and lyrical style of Amigo The Devil (aka born & raised Floridian/ Nashville based singer-songwriter-guitarist-banjoist Danny Kiranos), you need only engage with the three minutes and change of 'Hanging By The Roots,' which opens ATD’s most musically compelling and lyrically vivid work to date, Yours Until The War Is Over (recorded, produced and engineered in-house with collaboration from Kiranos’ songwriting partner and guitarist David Talley).
Carrying a dark Tom Waites vibe (Waites and Leonard Cohen are oft-cited comparisons in terms of ATD's musical tone and his more sombre textures) 'Hanging By The Roots' is built on little more than a repeating acoustic motif and some electric background ambience that supports a lyric full of wickedly clever and deliciously dark wordplay, which is an ATD trademark ("Are you bound to find hope, or just become a victim of the rope").
'Hanging By The Roots' also offers itself as a prime example of why macabre/ murder/ dark (delete as appropriate/ pick your favourite) neofolk is a commonly used description for ATD and his singular vision of the human condition, as set to music & lyrics.
Indeed every song has a human story, from relationships, life and survival to addiction, self-doubt and death; each pulls you in from the get-go as you listen to the story unfold, then end, usually with a twist or a dark-tinted punchline.
That’s most certainly true of 'Once Upon a Time in Texaco pt.1,' a jaunty, slightly off-kilter bluegrass romp that tells a tale of a drunken liquor robbery at a gas station that goes horribly wrong.
That it also manages to reference a Cher lyric and deliver one of ATD’s best lines yet ("I’m guessing that you all feel like a hostage, but I’m sure it feels nice to be held") only enhances the song’s wickedly sharp (and decidedly dark) humour.
Carrying a dark Tom Waites vibe (Waites and Leonard Cohen are oft-cited comparisons in terms of ATD's musical tone and his more sombre textures) 'Hanging By The Roots' is built on little more than a repeating acoustic motif and some electric background ambience that supports a lyric full of wickedly clever and deliciously dark wordplay, which is an ATD trademark ("Are you bound to find hope, or just become a victim of the rope").
'Hanging By The Roots' also offers itself as a prime example of why macabre/ murder/ dark (delete as appropriate/ pick your favourite) neofolk is a commonly used description for ATD and his singular vision of the human condition, as set to music & lyrics.
Indeed every song has a human story, from relationships, life and survival to addiction, self-doubt and death; each pulls you in from the get-go as you listen to the story unfold, then end, usually with a twist or a dark-tinted punchline.
That’s most certainly true of 'Once Upon a Time in Texaco pt.1,' a jaunty, slightly off-kilter bluegrass romp that tells a tale of a drunken liquor robbery at a gas station that goes horribly wrong.
That it also manages to reference a Cher lyric and deliver one of ATD’s best lines yet ("I’m guessing that you all feel like a hostage, but I’m sure it feels nice to be held") only enhances the song’s wickedly sharp (and decidedly dark) humour.
Similarly jaunty in its dark Nashville meets county & western styling is "I’m Going To Heaven," where the narrating character takes his own life, makes a deal with the devil to be sent upstairs to take out the man who murdered his wife – only to find it’s all a halucinogenmioc dream ("Who put the mean in ketamine, I hate ketamine!")
The mishap at the Texaco and the Ketamine dream are but two of many highlights across the album’s thirteen tracks, which come in varying shades and more subtle tones.
Indeed there’s an argument to be made that the clutch of included acoustic numbers make the biggest impact, including 'The Mechanic' (about wanting to fix what can’t be fixed), which is as melancholic as 'Garden Of Leaving' (trying to come to terms with the loss of a young child) is genuinely heartbreaking.
Then there’s vignette piece 'Agnes,' which tells the story of the letters written by American nurse Agnes von Kurowsky to an injured Ernest Hemingway (the pair became lovers during World War I), and her post-war ending of the relationship (her sign-off, which devastated Hemingway, forms the the title of the album).
'Barrel And Staghorn' acts as an interesting banjo, guitar and atmospherics (including snippets of anxious radio chatter) mid-album interlude while 'Cannibal Within' returns to the ATD trait of dark-folk (here through a simple banjo-picked refrain and interesting percussive arrangement) and the effects of neurosis ("I never thought I was scared of dying at all; I always thought my biggest fear would somehow be love related, not fentanyl").
The album heads to a conclusion in the finest of ATD styles, via the fun, country-folk-blues looseness of 'One Day at a Time' and the mid-tempo, electric alt-blues of 'Stray Dog,' the latter complete with dog howling backing vocals and a cacophonous chorus finale.
The album ends on 'Closer,' a spoken word narration/ observation on the human condition in four-and-a-half life, loss and "how do you win" minutes.
It might not be the ending expected, but given what has come before it’s the perfect, and utterly compelling closing statement to an album that's as darkly humoured as it is a deep dive into the inner self.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
The mishap at the Texaco and the Ketamine dream are but two of many highlights across the album’s thirteen tracks, which come in varying shades and more subtle tones.
Indeed there’s an argument to be made that the clutch of included acoustic numbers make the biggest impact, including 'The Mechanic' (about wanting to fix what can’t be fixed), which is as melancholic as 'Garden Of Leaving' (trying to come to terms with the loss of a young child) is genuinely heartbreaking.
Then there’s vignette piece 'Agnes,' which tells the story of the letters written by American nurse Agnes von Kurowsky to an injured Ernest Hemingway (the pair became lovers during World War I), and her post-war ending of the relationship (her sign-off, which devastated Hemingway, forms the the title of the album).
'Barrel And Staghorn' acts as an interesting banjo, guitar and atmospherics (including snippets of anxious radio chatter) mid-album interlude while 'Cannibal Within' returns to the ATD trait of dark-folk (here through a simple banjo-picked refrain and interesting percussive arrangement) and the effects of neurosis ("I never thought I was scared of dying at all; I always thought my biggest fear would somehow be love related, not fentanyl").
The album heads to a conclusion in the finest of ATD styles, via the fun, country-folk-blues looseness of 'One Day at a Time' and the mid-tempo, electric alt-blues of 'Stray Dog,' the latter complete with dog howling backing vocals and a cacophonous chorus finale.
The album ends on 'Closer,' a spoken word narration/ observation on the human condition in four-and-a-half life, loss and "how do you win" minutes.
It might not be the ending expected, but given what has come before it’s the perfect, and utterly compelling closing statement to an album that's as darkly humoured as it is a deep dive into the inner self.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ