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SPILL NEW MUSIC: HEAVY SHOEGAZE BAND LOCKSTEP SHARE NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO “WEAVE” + ANNOUNCE ‘ARRIVAL’ EP OUT MAY 19
SPILL NEW MUSIC: HANNAH GEORGAS SHARES NEW SINGLE “THIS TOO SHALL PASS” ON ARTS & CRAFTS
SPILL NEWS: THE SMASHING PUMPKINS ANNOUNCE 2023 NORTH AMERICAN ‘THE WORLD IS A VAMPIRE TOUR’ WITH SPECIAL GUESTS INTERPOL, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS & RIVAL SONS
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SPILL NEW MUSIC: SKYDIGGERS RELEASE NEW SINGLE “COME TO MY SENSES” VIA LATENT RECORDINGS | TOUR DATES
SPILL NEW MUSIC: EMMA ARMSTRONG – “MAYBE PROBABLY NEVER”
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: LANA DEL REY – DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE’S A TUNNEL UNDER OCEAN BLVD
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JERRY LEGER – LATENT UNCOVERS
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: VARIOUS ARTISTS – THE GREATEST SOUL/FUNK & DISCO 12″ SINGLES OF THE 70s AND 80s
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: DEPECHE MODE – MEMENTO MORI
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: THE KINKS – THE JOURNEY – PART 1
SPILL BOOK REVIEW: JOHN ROBB – THE ART OF DARKNESS: THE HISTORY OF GOTH
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BASS DRUM OF DEATH – SAY I WON’T
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: DARREN JESSEE – CENTRAL BRIDGE
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: d3adc0de – “FIGHT OR FLIGHT” (THE CRYSTAL METHOD REMIX)
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Album Reviews
2022
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SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT – THE NASHVILLE SOUND

Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit

Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit
The Nashville Sound
Southeastern Records/Sony Music

“The past is never dead.It’s not even past.”…William Faulkner

Writers from the American south have always had a special voice, and a special relationship with their complicated, turbulent and sometimes dark history. With their new album The Nashville Sound, Grammy award winners Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (the 400 Unit was a slang name for the lock down rooms at the local hospital) have drawn deeply from the well of American music to explore life in America today.

Produced by Dave Cobb, The Nashville Sound manages to combine a modern pop/country sound with a solid musical underpinning from the past. This is a sound we’ve heard before but recorded with a freshness and verve that uplifts the listener.

A beautiful example of this is the song “Cumberland Gap”. Referencing a Woody Guthrie song about the pass long used by native Americans to travel through the Cumberland mountains, Isbell reflects on the community of people once reliant on coal, now adrift in a baffling,changing world. “In White Mans World”, he looks at the unsettling mix of feelings that come with the legacy of the frontier myth.

The intoxicating thing about this album is that the songs are able to transcend the painful realities of race, class and personal politics with an honest and hopeful faith in the goodness of people,the people he knows so well.

Another standout is “If We Were Vampires”, a stunningly beautiful acoustic song about the fragility of love, the uncertainty of events…’if we were vampires, and death was a joke, we’d go out on the sidewalk and smoke’.

‘In this world the only certain things are love and family,community and friends…so if you’re looking’ for some bad news,you can find it somewhere else’ , he sings in “Hope The High Road” addressing that demographic that seems lost in the partisan culture wars, searching for a balance, a reckoning with the real past of the South and looking into the future with hope….’to a world you want to live in’.

The album closes with ‘Something To Love”, a touching tribute to all the little things that make life precious, home,music , the little pieces of life.…’I hope you find something to love…something to love it will serve you well’.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit are the freshest sound to emerge from the nexus of folk and country in many years. Their music is articulate and rocking, simple and yet able to present complex ideas; rooted in the past with their eyes and hearts fixed firmly on the future.



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SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT – THE NASHVILLE SOUND

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Fergus Hambleton

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Album Reviews
album reviewscumberland gapif we were vampiresjason isbell and the 400 unitsomething to lovesony musicsoutheastern recordsthe nashville sound
album reviews, cumberland gap, if we were vampires, jason isbell and the 400 unit, something to love, sony music, southeastern records, the nashville sound
About the Author
Fergus Hambleton
The Spill Magazine is a Toronto-based online publication dedicated to covering the independent music scene with a strong focus on our thriving hometown talent. Our writers bring you up-to-date news, in-depth features on musicians and reviews for the latest CD releases. We also travel to the front lines for all local festivals including Canadian Music Week and North by Northeast. Don’t forget to check out our Facebook and Twitter pages for all daily Spill updates.
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