While listening to this album, it is very easy to get the impression that Richard Buckner would be producing music whether or not he was able to record it. It's in his blood. The music is raw and unpretentious, majoring on alt.country sounds, but with obvious influences from emo and indie-rock. The opening track, for example, is a somewhat turbulent roots-rock emo piece which is interesting in its way, but is probably the album's weakest number.
Buckner's vocals have a slight country lilt to them, which are not quite as strong as Jay Farrar's (Son Volt) but in the same area. His vocals aren't quite as thick as Farrar's, either, and there is a fragility to them which suits the songs well. The vocals are accompanied by a variety of instruments, from solo guitar, to mandolin and pedal steel, to an appearance from a Moog synthesizer. The arrangements are kept tastefully sparse for the majority but can certainly pack a punch where necessary. "Jewelbomb" reminded me of some of the tracks on the latest Vigilantes of Love release.
Buckner's spirituality is difficult to pin down as his songs are more concerned with living life than expressing absolute beliefs. Spirituality is definitely of interest to Buckner, however, and on a track like "Faithful Shooter" it is difficult to know whether his words use spiritual imagery to talk about human relationships, or human relationships as a metaphor for spiritual explorations.
A number of the tracks are very short, which only shows that each song has been carefully crafted and refrains from superfluous repeated lyrics and instrumental breaks. Amidst the world-weary vocals lie nuggets of hope, and some honest, earthy music.
4.5 tocks
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 1998Reviewed by Steven S. Baldwin"Who is Richard Buckner?" If you know, you're among the fortunate. If you've been in the dark as I have, you may be surprised to learn that Buckner is an extraordinarily gifted singer-songwriter. With talent this hefty, he must have been under a pretty large rock to be obscured from the limelight for so long. As near as I've been able to piece together, his story goes something like this: young…Similar sounding releases
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