In 2013, Jason Isbell released 'Southeastern', an album that set a high watermark, not just for Isbell, but for every other singer-songwriter or artist. It was an astonishingly candid collection of confessional pieces and achingly beautiful songs that culminated in 'Elephant', an emotionally laced song to a dying lover, that even seven years later still has the power to elicit powerfully.
‘Reunions’, in many ways, feels like a companion piece to that album in terms of content and quality. The title refers to people he knew back in the day, and perhaps, more so himself before he fought and gained sobriety, and “swore off that stuff”.
There are a lot of ghosts on this album. Sometimes the songs are about people who aren’t around anymore but they are also about who I used to be, the ghost of myself.
It’s taken this passage of time to put a proper perspective on exactly who Isbell was. This theme is most evident on ‘It Gets Easier’. As Isbell suggests, it:
is the first time I’ve gone back and addressed that guy.
It gets easier, but it never gets easy. I can say it’s all worth it but you won’t believe me. Hold down your liquor or swallow pride. You’d rather keep it inside. It gets easier but it never gets easy.
A strand of damaged people trying to make amends runs through the album; from the confused child of ‘Dreamsicle’ who wonders “why can’t daddy just come home” to the ghost-town of ‘Overseas’ where “even the ghosts got out”.
Jason Isbell is lauded as one of the best lyricists of his generation and he has an easy way of mixing the prosaic with the life-changing in a couplet. The lyrics read like poetry, the music has hooks and propulsion to entice the listener and balm for the soul when required.
Taken on surface-level, ‘St. Peter’s Autograph’ is a beautiful song of comfort, support, and love to his wife Amanda Shires, following the death of much-missed fellow musician Neal Casal.
What do I do to make you smile? You’ve been hurting for a while. What can I do to make you laugh? Get St. Peter’s autograph. What’s that distance in your eyes? Has your faith been compromised? What can I do to help you sleep? I’ll work hard and work for cheap.
But there’s also an acknowledgment that grief is individual and two people, even in a close relationship, can be affected to different levels by the same loss. That can be hard to accept, but it is part of our existence and maturing as a person. It’s this that helps sets Isbell apart as a writer. The oft seeming simple lyrics belie a deeper sensibility and will repay repeated plays.
Produced by long time music partner Dave Cobb, the album is a work that refuses to rest on a particular vibe or sound. It is an album of hidden gems, devoid of any filler. Whether rocking out with The 400 Unit on ‘Be Afraid’ – his rallying cry to fellow artists to speak out about the car-crash administration in the White House at present – to the hugely affecting ballad to his daughter ‘Letting You Go’, this is a piece of art that grasps your attention and refuses to loosen its grip on the heart and mind.
Each new listen of the album, brings a new favourite track; the Knopfler influenced guitar drive of ‘Only Children’, to the elegiac ‘Overseas’, the rocking ‘What Have I Done To Help’, and the softly-strummed, almost whimsical ‘Dreamsicle’, this is a real box of delights.
Jason Isbell has received 4 Grammys for his work on his previous 3 albums but never picked up the award for Best Album. If there’s any justice, ‘Reunions’ should see that anomaly put to rest.