This Lonesome Town

4 Stars

     

It’s a critic’s habit to compare new artists to old, but there’s no carefully whittled pigeonhole into which a band like Westerly can burrow. It would be more appropriate to liken them to the CD collection of a Nashville dive bar, or a genre-bending tune like the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses.” Conveniently, they deliver a terrific rendition of that classic Stones tune towards the end of This Lonesome Town. Joshua Schramm’s vocals sound more Don Henley than Mick Jagger, though. Kory Nagler’s piano and Kevin Suggs’ pedal steel are all the song really needs. It’s a stripped-down cover made sweeter by the natural intuitive blend of Schramm’s lead vocals with Nagler’s distant falsetto. The disc is aptly titled, though, as there’s hardly a heart-warming tune in the bunch. This is a lonely record. Even the catchy sweetness of “Memphis” can’t distract from the fact that the song is about falling in love with someone who lives thousands of miles away. “Slow Train” is so sad there’s no option but to end it with some CSN&Y-like caterwauling. By the time Nagler gets to the vaguely Pink Floyd-esque “Before You Came,” your cold and lonesome heart is ready to embrace the melodrama of lines like “Freezing rain or scorching heat / your city wants me dead.” Here, Nagler’s voice is almost as scratchy as Hyde’s fuzz bass. Schramm’s watery guitar is broken by the dissonant, scratching high-pitched cords. Next to the tongue-in-cheek drunken babble lyrics of “Third Wheel” (and that song’s sheer rockability), this is the finest moment on the disc. Whether or not it’ll ever make sense on country radio is up to the DJs. Whatever it is, it’s good.