Songs of the Ungrateful Living

iTunes Review

Not since Beck has one artist so seamlessly blended blues, hip-hop, country, folk, and rock ‘n’ roll. But Beck hasn’t mused much on life’s darker side since 2002’s Sea Change. With 2011’s Songs of the Ungrateful Living, Everlast taps into the slowing pulse of the downtrodden American spirit, crushed by economic failure and unemployment. He does it so well that his genre shapeshifting seems to happen in the periphery. Over breezy guitar picking and weeping pedal steel notes, Everlast croons a gripping narrative about the destitute life of a blue-collar man trying to muster an ounce of strength while at the end of his rope. Vintage grinding organ tones introduce the following “Gone for Good,” as Everlast rhymes and sings about hardscrabble living over a bouncing beat. Throughout Songs of the Ungrateful Living, his voice gets grittier and raspier. This works especially well with the low, droning distorted horns of “I Get By,” which plays like the blues were invented on a pair of turntables instead of a detuned acoustic guitar.