Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound (June 16, 2017) Album • Page 13

Yep. That one isn't close for me.

 

I really like Anxiety, but I'm not sure it needs to be as long as it is.

 

Hadn't logged in all weekend. Gonna have to grab this when I get home from work today

 

I would agree with this. That one is lower tier on the record for me, just because it kind of overstays its welcome. I don't think it earns its length like "Children of Children" did.

 

It's definitely no "Children of Children" but it doesn't really feel like it drags to me either

 

I think there are just one or two too many repetitions of the chorus.

 

It honestly reminds me of when I used to accidentally download fake mp3s on napster/limewire that ended up just being the chorus of a song repeated for 3 minutes haha

 

Haha, I don't think it's that egregious, but I definitely remember those days.

I just think he shouldn't have started the song with the chorus (after the intro, that is). I think it would be more powerful if the song just went into the verse. Starting with the chorus is an old Dave Cobb trick, and I'm not sure it works there.

 

I think my inner Isbell fanboy isn't going to let me find much wrong with this record beyond the "wishes / facetious" rhyme

 

See, that line doesn't bother me. So...

 

I agree that "Anxiety" might be a bit overlong. Other than that, I'm not really digging "Last of My Kind" and that's it. Maybe I just don't get that song but it seems almost arrogant in a way that I have never before associated with Jason's songs or actions.

 

It might not be from Jason's perspective.

 

How do you mean arrogant? Genuinely curious. I don't hear that at all.

 

It's definitely not from Jason's perspective as he's not from Arkansas and he grew up in a trailer park not on a family farm. And his dad was a house painter.

 

It's almost certainly not from his perspective, but the character can still be arrogant and Jason's portrayal of this character is sympathetic. An extreme example is the difference between, say, "Wolf of Wall Street" and "Goodfellas." Both main characters are bad people, but the way the story is told differs in each, the latter of which condemns Henry Hill much more than the former does Jordan Belfort.

The narrator is so special that he's the last person like that. Couldn't live in them big cities because of the grime and nobody even cares about the homeless people. But he cares about the homeless people. Isn't he such a gem of a person because he cares so much about homeless people and all those city folk just walk on by?

 

Yeah, tracks 1, 2, and 3 are all story songs. Most of the rest is autobiographical, or at least very personal.

 

I read it more as a fish-out-of-water story than a "look at how special this guy is" kind of thing. It's kind of a counterpart to "Cumberland Gap," in my mind. They're both about characters from small, rural, southern towns who have kind of been left behind by the modern world. The character in "Cumberland Gap" stays put and languishes; the character in "The Last of My Kind" gets out and also languishes.

It's about how different groups of people can have completely different cultures and ideals, even though they're from the same country. It's about how middle or upper class people from outside the south--especially in cities--will often look down on lower-class people from southern states for how they dress, how they talk, what they believe, etc. Classism that only seems to have gotten worse since Trump won the election.

I view the reference to the homeless people on the sidewalk as a way to underline the hypocrisy of the people the protagonist meets in the big city. They imagine themselves as these open-minded, good-hearted, liberal people. They claim to want equality and acceptance for everyone, and to want to help the less fortunate, and then they're dismissive of this guy from the south and desensitized to the less fortunate people suffering right in front of their eyes.

I don't know. I definitely see now how you took the interpretation you did from the song. I just don't think that's the intention at all.

 

It's definitely not the intention, but it goes from fish out of water to I'm so unique with the title phrase. It's like something a woman would say about her great and attentive husband to her friends only he's saying it about himself.

 

I guess I take it more as "Is there a place in this world for me still?" More of a negative than a positive.

 

I see that as well, but it's still "is there a place in this terrible world for someone as good as me?" It doesn't matter much, I don't want to sound negative, I love the album (99 percent chance of AOTY) and I like the song, too. Just nitpicking because that's all any criticism of Jason can possibly be anyway.

 

Worth noting how great Amanda is on this.

 

Worth noting that Amanda is the best thing to happen to Jason's music since Hood and Cooley kicked his ass out of DBT.

 

I love last of my kind. Kind of get where the arrogance might be seen, but for me it might be a little bit of pride. Like, the character is sort of proud of where he's come from and has made peace with it, and it's almost a "this stuff is awesome, and it's mine, so please stop picking on it." It's the fact that there are different kinds to be the last of. It's the feeling of being alone in a crowded room, of being different, and of having absolutely no desire to change those differences. It's surrounded loneliness. Because when it's just you surrounded by people who aren't like you and might not like you, it's hard not to feel put upon. Being surrounded by unfamiliar forces does tough stuff to peoples' psychology. So they push back -- look at all these homeless people that y'all don't do anything to, and you clap on one and three (my favorite line on the record) -- and differences grow, and tempers raise, and people grow apart. And then everyone becomes the last of their kind.

 

The clap on one and three line is probably the most arrogant part of the song, but that line is hilarious, because people who clap on one and three suck at life.