Last year, when Israel Nash released Rain Plans, I thought it was one of the coolest-sounding albums I’d heard in months. Come December, when it came time to cobble together my year’s-best lists for this and other publications, I’d completely forgotten about it—and was at a loss for why.
But then I remembered Midlake’s Trials of Van Occupanther, another album that temporarily tickled me before it wound up collecting dust. Midlake ultimately reminded me too much of Fleetwood Mac—and if I wanted to listen to Fleetwood Mac, I’d just put on Fleetwood Mac. So it went with Nash, who’s got Neil Young down so cold that you could have told me Rain Plans was a collection of the high-pitched rocker’s b-sides and I’d have believed you without the slightest bit of skepticism.
Nash’s new album, Silver Season (out October 9 on Loose Music), still sounds a lot like Young. But on tracks like “The Fire & The Flood,” Nash lets his voice dip into its natural register, revealing an artist with his own vision. Lap-steel sunbursts abound, but they’re stretched to psychedelic ends and plunged into multi-instrumental jams that resemble Phosphorescent. “Mariner’s Ode” and “The Rag & Bone Man” are two additional standouts, but Silver Season is best consumed as a pitcher of porter instead of several separate schooners. Nash has tracked the album expertly, to the point where it ends up being a grower instead of a grind-and-gallop type of engagement.
Blitzen Trapper released a live, album-length cover of Neil Young’s Harvest on Record Store Day earlier this year, but the band the Portland-based quintet will really remind you of on All Across This Land (out October 2 on Vagrant) is Big Star. It’s an unabashed classic-rock release (there are two sides, even in CD format) from a critical darling that’s gone so far as to try and fuse Americana with hip-hop. On “Lonesome Angel” and “Even If You Don’t” especially, frontman Eric Earley really sounds like Alex Chilton. Side Two brings Springsteen’s influence into view, primarily on “Nights Were Made for Love” and “Cadillac Road,” which make deft use of rock piano.
The essence of Across This Land’s success, however, can be found in the lovely track, “Love Grow Cold.” It’s a simple song with a subtly dynamic arrangement that reminds you of nobody else, save for maybe Tom Petty. The head Heartbreaker is perhaps the least polarizing artist on the planet because he takes a range of influences and sculpts them into something uniquely his own, but accessible to many. If you’re going to be a blatant nostalgist, this is the way to do it.
