Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

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RevMatt
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by RevMatt »

Zip City wrote:I really think you're reading too much into the song.

If so, I'm not the only one. http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/ ... ama-pines/
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Zip City
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Zip City »

RevMatt wrote:
Zip City wrote:I really think you're reading too much into the song.

If so, I'm not the only one. http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/ ... ama-pines/


Nowhere in that article does it suggest that Alabama Pines is a metaphor for a pine box
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by RevMatt »

Zip City wrote:
RevMatt wrote:
Zip City wrote:I really think you're reading too much into the song.

If so, I'm not the only one. http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/ ... ama-pines/


Nowhere in that article does it suggest that Alabama Pines is a metaphor for a pine box

Nowhere in my post does it say it is a metaphor for a pine box. I just used the phrase to say that the narrator longs for Alabama but he's a long way away and not going back. I do think the song is, in its way, about death.
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by LagoonField »

We had Southeastern in heavy rotation for the past couple of months. It is getting better and better. What a great album. Big thumbs up.....

Top to bottom, this is a keeper!! We have seen Jason live twice this Summer at Floydfest and in Baltimore. Both outings were excellent.

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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Zip City »

Got an email from Amazon today about Cyber-Monday album deals, and Southeastern was the featured cover art (along with Daft Punk and Keith Urban).
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Smitty »

"Relatively Easy" has became my favorite song off this one.
That is all.
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Duke Silver »

Smitty wrote:"Relatively Easy" has became my favorite song off this one.
That is all.


I was listening to SE the other night and realized that after Cover Me Up (a perfect song), New South Wales is probably my favorite.
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Zip City »

I've found that there has been a lot fans who want Jason to "rock more", though I find the rock songs on Southeastern to be my least favorites
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by GuitarManUpstairs »

Duke Silver wrote:
Smitty wrote:"Relatively Easy" has became my favorite song off this one.
That is all.


I was listening to SE the other night and realized that after Cover Me Up (a perfect song), New South Wales is probably my favorite.


This is funny. Smitty I remember you specifically saying Relatively Easy was bottom of the bucket for you along with FOW. And Duke, I don't recall your comments on New South Wales specifically but i know it was generally panned by a great majority initially. RE was one of my favorites from the start, but NSW has really grown on me over the last few months. Funny how perspectives can change after you spend some time with them. I tell people all the time (in reference to DBT) songs I initially skipped or wrote off have become some of my favorites after repeated listens.
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by GuitarManUpstairs »

Zip City wrote:I've found that there has been a lot fans who want Jason to "rock more", though I find the rock songs on Southeastern to be my least favorites


I tend to agree although there are no songs I dislike on the album. I think what folks (or me anyway) want to see is for his songs to still have an edge to them. I want the emotional gut punch of Elephant paired with the nasty slide and brooding aura of Decoration Day. I just want a few angsty 'fuck you' songs along with all the introspection. We ain't never gonna change motherfucker! Ya know?
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Zip City »

GuitarManUpstairs wrote:
Zip City wrote:I've found that there has been a lot fans who want Jason to "rock more", though I find the rock songs on Southeastern to be my least favorites


I tend to agree although there are no songs I dislike on the album. I think what folks (or me anyway) want to see is for his songs to still have an edge to them. I want the emotional gut punch of Elephant paired with the nasty slide and brooding aura of Decoration Day. I just want a few angsty 'fuck you' songs along with all the introspection. We ain't never gonna change motherfucker! Ya know?


I totally get it, it's just that Flying Over Water doesn't qualify
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by GuitarManUpstairs »

Zip City wrote:
GuitarManUpstairs wrote:
Zip City wrote:I've found that there has been a lot fans who want Jason to "rock more", though I find the rock songs on Southeastern to be my least favorites


I tend to agree although there are no songs I dislike on the album. I think what folks (or me anyway) want to see is for his songs to still have an edge to them. I want the emotional gut punch of Elephant paired with the nasty slide and brooding aura of Decoration Day. I just want a few angsty 'fuck you' songs along with all the introspection. We ain't never gonna change motherfucker! Ya know?


I totally get it, it's just that Flying Over Water doesn't qualify


Agree. I was thrown off after reading early press releases mentioning FOW as an example of him staying true to his rock roots. When I finally heard it I realized they only said such about it because of the electric solo he throws in at the end of the song (which is followed by an a capella refrain) . Doesn't qualify as a rocker to me. Live it's a little bit different animal but still...
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

Southeastern comes in at #11 on Paste's Best Albums of 2013 list.

The first few years of Jason Isbell’s solo career were beset with personal problems, including a well-publicized struggle with alcohol abuse, and his first three solo outings often played like too much of the same thing. But with Southeastern, Isbell has broken this hard luck streak, crafting an album worthy of his considerable talents. Each of the songs is a stunner. “Cover Me Up” is on the one hand a gentle, insistent love song, and on the other a moving testament to personal redemption that never once turns a blind eye to past indiscretions. It sets the tone for the remainder of the album, which is given equally to the promise of romance and the ever-looming possibility of suffering, both self-induced and arbitrary. As good as the songs are, Isbell’s singing may be even better. It’s certainly some of the best vocal work he’s yet committed to tape. His baritone, always rich, is deepened here by a grittiness that lends Southeastern a real soulful quality. By any reasonable aesthetic criteria, Southeastern is a triumph. It’s the most potent expression to date of Isbell’s talent (including his Drive-By Truckers output) and, hopefully, a harbinger of great things to come.—Jerrick Adams

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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by GuitarManUpstairs »

#1 for American Songwriter. Kudos JI.

http://www.americansongwriter.com/2013/12/american-songwriters-top-50-albums-2013/5/

Southeastern, his third, is a breathtaking document of lyrical honesty and achingly gorgeous melodies.
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Iowan »

I don't know how I'd rank the songs on Southeastern, but I've loved "Flying Over Water" since day one.

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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Cole Younger »

Iowan wrote:I don't know how I'd rank the songs on Southeastern, but I've loved "Flying Over Water" since day one.


Me too.
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by zoid »

Jason Isbell’s album of haunting atonement and redemption, the sparse and impressive Southeastern, ranks No.1 most played album for 2013
on the Americana Airplay Chart

http://e2.ma/webview/5w0pf/69c7ac31c253 ... fd6ed2188d

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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

Caitlin Cary (Whiskeytown, Tres Chicas, Small Ponds, solo, etc.) recently said on FB that she considers Southeastern a "decade topper". Thoughts? I know it made a huge impression on me upon it's release but it's not an album that I've revisited a whole lot since then.

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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Cole Younger »

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:Caitlin Cary (Whiskeytown, Tres Chicas, Small Ponds, solo, etc.) recently said on FB that she considers Southeastern a "decade topper". Thoughts? I know it made a huge impression on me upon it's release but it's not an album that I've revisited a whole lot since then.
Yeah same here. I loved it when it was released and I till appreciate it but I never listen to it anymore.
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Duke Silver »

Cover Me Up might be a decade topper song, but no album with Yvette and Super 8 deserves that title.
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Zip City »

Duke Silver wrote:Cover Me Up might be a decade topper song, but no album with Yvette and Super 8 deserves that title.
Yvette is awesome.
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

Duke Silver wrote:Cover Me Up might be a decade topper song, but no album with Yvette and Super 8 deserves that title.
I don't really hate either of those songs but there is a sameness to the record that hasn't aged well. Some absolutely great songs though. I've never understood why people seem to think Cover Me Up is the best song on the record though. To me it's Elephant and it's not close. Probably the best song he's ever written but admittedly it has some competition on that score.
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Clams »

I think Southeastern's a classic and I still listen to it every month or so. I also give a big Thumbs Up to Super 8. Even though it's kind of a throw away, it still fits thematically into the album's narrative. It may not pack the same punch as Elephant or Cover Me Up, but that's alright, it doesn't have to. I'd liken it to Kinky Hypocrite on American Band in that it adds a necessary bit of levity to an otherwise heavy, heavy record.
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Re: Jason Isbell: Southeastern Album Thread

Post by Smitty »

See, I think Super 8 sticks out like a sore thumb, but to each his own.
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