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Avg: 4.5 (385 ratings)
- Date Released: June 17, 2003
- Genre: Country/Folk
- Style: Alt-Country
- Label: New West Records
How do you follow up the most ambitious album of your career?
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We Say...
Released in 2003, Decoration Day was an abundantly compelling answer to the question of how a group follows the most ambitious album of their career. On 2001's double album Southern Rock Opera, Drive-By Truckers had delivered exactly that: a narration of the all-too-literal rise and fall of their heroes Lynyrd Skynyrd, through which they'd refracted a thoughtful — and highly rocking — examination of their heritage. The remit of Decoration Day, then, was just to be a great bunch of songs, and the album fulfilled it amply. "Hell No, I Ain't Happy" is a spectacular summing of the ghosts of Creedence Clearwater Revival, "When the Pin Hits the Shell" a characteristically literate Mike Cooley ballad. Best of all is "Outfit," a bleary farrago of father-to-son advice by Jason Isbell, nonetheless affecting for being so funny: "Don't sing with a fake British accent/ Don't act like your family's a joke." Wise words.
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They Say...
For a musician, the trouble with making your best album is you have to figure out a way to top it next time out, and that isn't always easy. On their first three albums, the Drive-By Truckers were a better-than-average band from the harder-and-faster end of the alt-country spectrum who blended Replacements-esque snot and slop with a Lynyrd Skynyrd-influenced shot of twangy hard rock. But it was when the Truckers confronted the ghost of Skynyrd as well as the often confusing legacy of both Southern rock and what DBTs leader Patterson Hood calls "the duality of the Southern thing" that they finally achieved greatness; Southern Rock Opera was that modern rarity, a successful concept album, a thoughtful examination of race and class in America, and a superb, balls-out hard rock album wrapped up in one proudly homemade package. The brilliance of Southern Rock Opera certainly upped the ante for the DBTs' follow-up, and it would be a lie to say Decoration Day is just as remarkable as the album that preceded it. But Decoration Day is every bit as ambitious a work as Southern Rock Opera, broadening the band's sound and style while staying true to their ideals and approach. If you're looking for tough, Southern-styled rock, "Marry Me," "Careless," and "Do It Yourself" offer it up in spades (and "Hell No, I Ain't Happy" sounds like it could be a new generation's "Take This Job and Shove It"); but the quiet bad-seed ballads "The Deeper In" and "Heathens" and the tragic love songs "My Sweet Anette" and "Sounds Better in the Song" all display a subtlety and restraint one might not have expected from this band, while still boasting the flinty honesty of the Truckers' best work. Decoration Day lacks the narrative cohesion of Southern Rock Opera, but all of these songs are informed by the experience of living and dying in the Deep South, described with a deeply felt compassion but with no false illusions, and the DBTs draw their portraits with a deep and telling eye for the details; Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp never wrote a Farm Aid song as bitter and pointed as "Sink Hole," while "Outfit" and the title tune both celebrate a man's Alabama heritage while examining the toll it has claimed of his sons. Somber and smart, Decoration Day also manages to kick like a mule, and if isn't the same sort of masterpiece as Southern Rock Opera, it's strong enough to suggest the Drive-By Truckers may have a handful of masterpieces up their sleeves.
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| 01. |  |
The Deeper In |
3:15 |
|
| 02. | |
Sink Hole |
3:26 |
|
| 03. | |
Hell No, I Ain't Happy |
4:38 |
|
| 04. | |
Marry Me |
5:39 |
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| 05. | |
My Sweet Annette |
3:51 |
|
| 06. | |
Outfit |
4:04 |
|
| 07. | |
Heathens |
4:47 |
|
| 08. | |
Sounds Better in the Song |
4:08 |
|
| 09. | |
(Something's Got To) Give Pretty Soon |
3:38 |
|
| 10. | |
Your Daddy Hates Me |
6:40 |
|
| 11. | |
Careless |
2:07 |
|
| 12. | |
When the Pin Hits the Shell |
4:10 |
|
| 13. | |
Do It Yourself |
3:20 |
|
| 14. | |
Decoration Day |
5:47 |
|
| 15. | |
Loaded Gun in the Closet |
5:13 |
|
15 Total Tracks, 64:43 Total Length
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Credits
- David Barbe - Guitar // David Barbe - Keyboards // David Barbe - Producer // David Barbe - Engineer // David Barbe - Mixing // David Barbe - Wurlitzer // David Barbe - Piano (Upright) // Dick Cooper - Production Assistant // Dick Cooper - Facility Consultant // John Neff - Pedal Steel // Spooner Oldham - Wurlitzer // Spooner Oldham - Soloist // Mike Cooley - Guitar // Mike Cooley - Vocals // Mike Cooley - Group Member // David Wilds - Photography // Drive-By Truckers - Main Performer // Glenn Schick - Mastering // Bob Spires - Harmony // Patterson Hood - Guitar // Patterson Hood - Vocals // Patterson Hood - Group Member // Wes Freed - Visuals // Wes Freed - Cover Art // Jason Isbell - Guitar // Jason Isbell - Guitar // Jason Isbell - Vocals // Jason Isbell - Vocals // Jason Isbell - Group Member // Jason Isbell - Group Member // Earl Hicks - Bass // Earl Hicks - Group Member // Brad Morgan - Drums // Brad Morgan - Group Member // Clay Leverett - Harmony // Scott Danborn - Fiddle // Lilla Hood - Art Direction
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