Description:
John Doe is back again. As a founding member of punk monoliths X, he seized his rightful place as one of the most influential musicians in American alternative music in the 1980 s, clearing a path for the revolution in that genre that would take place a decade later. Since launching his solo career in 1990 with the dusty road-poetry of Meet John Doe, John has produced six stunning roots rock albums of frightening honesty and vision. A Year in the Wilderness is no exception.
This time around John has invited his friends and frequent conspirators to help him interpret songs that came fast and hard. Doe dubs the Wilderness sessio
John Doe is back again. As a founding member of punk monoliths X, he seized his rightful place as one of the most influential musicians in American alternative music in the 1980 s, clearing a path for the revolution in that genre that would take place a decade later. Since launching his solo career in 1990 with the dusty road-poetry of Meet John Doe, John has produced six stunning roots rock albums of frightening honesty and vision. A Year in the Wilderness is no exception.
This time around John has invited his friends and frequent conspirators to help him interpret songs that came fast and hard. Doe dubs the Wilderness sessions, A scary and wondrous process where a blast of intuition and force that takes only moments to realize, but that can last forever and carry consequences you never imagined. Guest stars appearing on A Year in the Wilderness include Dave Alvin, Jill Sobule, Kathleen Edwards, Dan Auerbach (from The Black Keys), Greg Leisz and Aimee Mann.
It comes as little surprise that John Doe employs three different female vocalists (Kathleen Edwards, Jill Sobule, and Aimee Mann) to assist on A Year in the Wilderness. After all, it was Exene Cervenka's restless harmonies that bolstered Doe's own dusky lead vocals, providing X with a distinctive sound that has seldom been imitated and never bested, even by the group's own alumni. Doe nonetheless continues to refine the formula, delivering sharp, literate lyrics to rugged, often pensive odes. He mines a kinder, gentler, but no less incisive territory of the somewhat precarious space between the sexes. Doe even strums an acoustic guitar in full folk-ballad mode on "A Little More Time," a somber reflection on love lost. Former X guitarist Dave Alvin provides rootsy firepower on the driving "Hotel Ghost," as close as this disc comes to the old L.A. punk days. But Doe's raw approach chafes at the introspective nature of these songs, adding somber, gritty gravity to the uncompromising lyrics of "Unforgiven," "you say I'm good for nothing, so nothing's good enough for me." While the set lacks the blazing nervousness of X's best material, the older/wiser Doe preserves an uneasy sense of youthful alienation that sports a musically grizzled, five-o'clock shadow. These songs resonate with a mature, biting broodiness that updates, but never dilutes, his legendary early work. --Hal Horowitz
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Manufacturer: Yep Roc Records
Release date: 12 June 2007
EAN: 0634457214125 UPC: 634457214125
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