ALBUM REVIEW: Caleb Caudle Keeps Climbing on ‘Sweet Critters’

Caleb Caudle has traveled a long road to where he stands today. His music has gone through many permutations, and his latest album, Sweet Critters, has found the sweet spot between his explorations into folk, gospel, country soul, and funk. This is an album of homecomings and growing into yourself — and taking the time to notice the process.

Caleb Caudle (photo by Joseph Cash)

Caudle launches the album with a portentous cover of Keith Whitley’s “Great High Mountain.” The song serves as a prologue, exhorting us to continue climbing the mountain of our struggles with a wish that the Almighty could give us a little push sometimes. It sets the stage for 11 snapshots of people who have taken that message to heart: some with peace, others with a touch of resistance.

There is no question that Caudle has survived struggles of his own, and much of the album centers his anxieties and sleepless nights. “The Brim” features Caudle’s voice with an almost angelic clarity, as the narrator — clearly a loved one — addresses him. Caudle imagines himself returning from tour, receiving reassurance that he is good enough. Aoife O’Donovan provides crystalline harmonies, ensuring that Caudle’s comforting words don’t ring hollow.

Then there are songs like “Hollywood Ending,” where Caudle casually requests that Father Time no longer “take take take.” On this gentle groove, Caudle offers a reminder that “it all works out eventually” and to take things as they come. The lazy rhythm is called into question as Caudle lists the usual summer discomforts, but even these shall pass. Meanwhile, “The Garage” finds Caudle fondly chasing the rock-and-roll thrill from dive bars to his current success, wondering why some make it and others don’t. On “Heaven Sometimes,” Caudle is searching for ways to ground himself amid the extreme highs and lows of the road.

Perhaps in contrast to his private anxieties, Caudle populates Sweet Critters with moving character studies. “The Devil’s Voice” addresses boredom and addiction in small-town life, and while we can feel Caudle’s personal proximity to the situation, his study of Diana perhaps affords him the ability to express a gentleness and compassion he’s not ready to extend to himself. The title track, “Sweet Critters,” is transcendent: Harold Lee and Gerry Ann achieve the Hollywood ending Caudle alludes to elsewhere, in spite of the odds.

Throughout his long career, Caudle has always known exactly who he is, peeling back layers to express his fears and victories with tenderness. That his first-person songs are so gutting is no surprise — he’s always been good at that. With Sweet Critters, these intoxicating melodies, percussive lyrics, and peerless craftsmanship, Caudle shows that he’s only gotten better at telling us.

Caleb Caudle’s Sweet Critters is out Aug. 30 via Baldwin County Public Records/Missing Piece Group.