Now that concerts are cancelled, I can’t think of anything that excites my ears more than a new Jason Isbell album. On Friday, Isbell released Reunions, his 10th studio album (not counting his Drive-by Truckers contributions would be like refusing money from the tooth fairy).
My expectations for Reunions were high. Let me show you why:
Why Caleb loves Jason Isbell
Only Springsteen and Craig Finn (Hold Steady, Lifter Puller) capture the townie experience as eloquently as Isbell, and no one has a stronger CV of original music over the past decade (only Lana and Kendrick are even in the same league).
Somehow Reunions lives up to my unreasonable expectations. It has everything that I love and have come to expect from a Jason Isbell album: slow hometown heartbreak (Only Children), trying to leave said hometown (Dreamsicle), anxiety rock (Be Afraid), a killer god metaphor (River, see 24 Frames), alcohol (It Gets Easier), and love (Letting You Go). “It Gets Easier” might be the best song ever written about recovering from substance abuse, but “Letting You Go” is the album’s knockout punch: a song about fatherhood, from the driving the newborn home to walking her down the aisle. If Isbell’s songs fought a battle royale, this one would drive a stake through the heart of If We Were Vampires.
Jason Isbell doesn’t attempt to reinvent himself or expand his sound on Reunions. Instead, he follows Bob Marley, Muddy Waters, and Leonard Cohen, who consistently worked towards perfecting their sound rather than attempt to fix something that was never broken.
How does Reunions compare with Isbell’s other recordings? I group his releases into three categories: the perfect 10s, the 9s, and the 8s. In the spirit of using meaningless decimal points to evaluate music, I’ll give Reunions a 9.178 out of 10.
And here is my complete ranking of Jason Isbell’s studio albums:
The 10s:
1. Decoration Day (Drive-by Truckers)
2. Something More Than Free
3. Southeastern
The 9s:
4. Here We Rest
5. Reunions
6. The Dirty South (Drive-by Truckers)
7. The Nashville Sound
The 8s:
8. A Blessing and a Curse (Drive-by Truckers)
9. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
10. Sirens of The Ditch