Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Weathervanes (June 9, 2023) Album • Page 27

It's settled in at a comfortable third for me. I definitely reach for Southeastern and Reunions more.

 

Weathervanes
Something More Than Free
Southeastern
Reunions
Here We Rest
JI&400U
Sirens of the Ditch
Nashville Sound

that’s what I’m feeling this morning

 

Man, you really don't like The Nashville Sound. I've cooled on it, but I still think it's way better than self-titled, which is IMO a lot of rough, underdeveloped sketches surrounding 3-4 really good songs.

 

Anyway,

Southeastern=Reunions
Weathervanes
Something More Than Free
The Nashville Sound
Here We Rest
Sirens of the Ditch
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Reunions being one of the albums that really helped get me through the pandemic, and an album I found really comforting when my grandma passed away that fall, and also my favorite album review I ever wrote, has really won it some extra cachet for me in the past year or so.

 

Good is the only song on there that feels underdeveloped to me. It’s less that I’ve cooled more on Nashville Sound recently and more that I’ve fallen back in love with the self titled after paying for an mp3 of the original mix several months ago, I fucking hate the Cobb remix hate hate hate it

 

Nashville Sound has 5 good songs, a couple great ones, and a couple duds but my main beef is that the production just smothers that record

 

The only ones I really ever loved on that album are "The Last Song I Will Ever Write," "Cigarettes and Wine," and "Streetlights." It's by far my least played Isbell album. A lot of the other stuff feels very "second half of Here We Rest" to me, which I also think is a little undercooked. Those are still good albums, but I feel like he leveled up so substantially when he stopped drinking.

The Cobb mix does blow chunks, though. It makes me sad that that's the version that exists on vinyl, because it is not the version of the album I know and enjoy. I almost never spin it on wax.

 

What's your production gripe? If anything, I feel like it sounds a little "press record and call it good," in a way that a lot of Cobb records from that time do. There's a similar demo-ish feel to Stapleton's two albums from that year.

 

i agree with chris mostly

Wearhervanes
Reunions
Southeastern
Something More Than Free
Here We Rest
Nashville Sound
S/T
Sirens of the Ditch

 

i think there’s a reason less and less of the guys in jason’s class are working with dave and he’s doing more and more rival sons style records. i’m sure the money is nice on his end working with bands like that but for “country” records, his sound got pretty stale. even on the most recent stapleton record, which i liked

 

I only really know this one and Southeastern and I love both. Think it’s time I do a deep dive

 

nashville sound was my first real experience with him so i probably rank it higher than most would, but that said its still probably middle of the road ranking wise.

 

The problem was that everyone and their mother wanted to work with him for like a five-year period there, and it really homogenized the sound of a certain type of country/Americana. I like a lot of the records he produced, but man, I got so tired of his thing.

 

Craig, no love for Sunstroke? I think that one might make my short-list for him, and it's got probably my favorite opening line.

I agree about him levelling up when he got sober, but I still think self-titled is an incredible album. (Original mix, obviously.)

 

What version exists on Spotify? I didn't even know it was remixed.

 

The remixed version is the one on all streaming platforms, at least since circa 2017, and I think I had to use a vpn to buy the mp3s from the eu Amazon store or something

if anyone wants mp3s of the original pm me

 

The more acoustic based songs sound great but the “rockers” (except maybe Anxiety which I’ve found increasingly tedious as the years have gone by) all sound really flat on record, especially compared to how they sound live. Reunions was a big improvement in that regard though so it’s maybe not fair to say it’s Cobb’s doing—and yeah they did record that record in like 10 days front to back or something.

 

i keep forgetting im seeing the man next saturday night at radio city

 

Reunions
Southeastern
Weathervanes

 

Stuff like "Sunstroke" and "Seven Mile Island" is super enjoyable, but those songs don't stick with me in the way that even some of the more middle-of-the-ranking stuff on other albums does.

I gave that album a spin on vinyl this evening, thanks to this thread. It's both better than I give it credit for and worse, because the Cobb mix really fucks with what makes those songs fun. I remember reading something where Jason said "Dave helped me realize I didn't need a million guitar overdubs on every track!" But, like, the parade of guitar overdubs totally makes "The Last Song I Will Write." That long drawn-out outro is just so much less powerful in the Cobb version of the album.

"Anxiety" is the only miss from that album for me. I get what he was going for, but it just feels overwrought and uninspired to me. I agree that "Hope the High Road" and especially "Cumberland Gap" don't have the punch they should, but it's on the whole a more ballady record that what came immediately before or after, and I love the sound of, like, "Tupeloe" and "Vampires" and "Something to Love." And "Chaos and Clothes," which I did not like much when that album came out, actually plays better for me now that we know what a piece of shit Ryan Adams is.

Reunions does sound about a million times better, though. It's honestly odd how much fuller and more considered that album sounds, considering that all the same people worked on it. Imagine "Overseas" with the Nashville Sound production.

Honestly, Reunions gets a lot of points just for the lyrics of "River." Maybe my favorite piece of raw songwriting he's done.

 

I would rather not if it’s okay with you!

 

I have Nashville Sound easily in the top 3 which appears to differ from everyone else

 

Today I learned people don’t like the sound of the Nashville sound

 

It’s because they wouldn’t let Mama change it