Blitzen Trapper Contemplates the Bardo on ‘Holy Smokes Future Jokes’

With Holy Smokes Future Jokes, Blitzen Trapper releases a 10th set of engaging songs, replete with potent lyrics and enthusiastic instrumentation. The project — available on vinyl at independent record stores on Sept. 18 and widely released on all formats Sept. 25 — opens with “Baptismal,” a multi-genric blend of sounds and approaches, frontman and multi-instrumentalist Eric Earley reaffirming himself as an immediately recognizable vocalist.

With “Bardo’s Light (Ouija, Ouija),” Earley merges quotidian and darkly diaristic elements, the song partly a lament re the conditioned lives we live (“We repeat the age-old rhyme / ouija ouija tell me will I live before I die?”) and partly an acknowledgment of the ineffable mysteries that surround us (“Downshift on the razor’s edge / silent hearts will make you shiver / All the voices in our head / dark trees run to the river”).

The title song is perhaps the album’s high point, Earley’s vocal at its most nuanced and least rushed. In turn, some of the album’s most effective lyrics — an integration of narrative, imagery, and humor — are given the opportunity to fully convey: “Holy smokes these future jokes / You called me on my landline just to blow some smoke / And tell me that our whole life feels like a hoax / Just like the lunar landing and those talking goats.”

With “Dead Billie Jean,” Earley shines as the poetic raconteur: “Born on the Fourth of July / no question who the mother was / But the father’s on the lam, playing spoons and grand piano / in a family band, prosthetic hand.” This track most overtly reflects the influence of George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, which Earley was reading while he wrote many of the album’s songs. The novel depicts a purgatorial afterworld (or bardo), how souls often cling to their previous existences, refusing to assimilate with the universe, until — not a spoiler — they do. The album closes with “Hazy Morning,” a Dylanesque tune wrapped in a swirl of instrumentation and featuring a notable guitar solo.

As with previous albums, Holy Smokes Future Jokes is ultimately defined by Eric Earley’s vocals and lyricism. While Earley’s melodies are occasionally predictable, each song invariably includes hook-y swerves or hip vocal annunciations that nudge the track toward infectiousness. Seventeen years since its eponymous debut, Blitzen Trapper remains an innovative band well-versed on the Americana playbook, still offering distinct contributions.