Shovels and Rope’s third album, Swimming Time, is a romp through American musical styles. It doesn’t feel like a history lesson, but Shovels and Rope take us to school. With their dual voices, their garage rock percussion, and their shake, rattle and roll, Shovels and Rope could be described as Americana or roots music, but Shovels and Rope are bigger than Americana, they are rock and roll.
The opening track “When the Devil is All Around” is a radio friendly mid-tempo gospel tinged number that would fee right on a country music station or the local rock station. The tempo picks up a little with “Bridge on Fire” a love song as arson rocker that showcases the duo’s darker side lyricism, “The old bridge is on fire, and I’m the one to blame, a stone cold igniter.” But the jewel of the first fourth of the record is “Evil,” which could easily cue up on your bad day playlist. “But every now and then I get evil, I’m ashamed in the shadow of a steeple, I’m a lunatic looking through a keyhole.” It’s a great number, and a reminder that evil is within us all, not just on in the outside world.
The second fourth of Swimming Time begins with a slow number, and Cary Ann Hearst is at the top of her game on “After the Storm,” thematically and elegiacally fleshing out the power of water. “Fish Assassin” manages to thump the bible of rural living without it sounding phony, something Big Nashville has trouble with as of late (cue up every country song bragging about rural roots). The brilliant “Coping Mechanism” is a an old-timey barroom honky-tonk contemplating addictive behavior; rarely does addiction sound so good.
Shovels and Rope has hit upon a slew of contemporary issues on this record, perhaps none more forbidding than the climate change warning at the heart of the gloom-rocking title track, “Swimming Time.” The motif of the ocean and the water, runs through the record, and remains at the heart of the songwriting, and it has never sounded as menacing.
The married couple, Cary Ann Hearst, and husband Michael Trent, also serve up the history, “Stono River Blues” and “Thresher” contemplate personal and tragic history. That could also be said for their musical style which blends roots, gospel, country, and rock together--all that music rubbing elbows with each other is bound to create some pleasurable friction. And it does. When you listen to this record you can imagine every track performed live. That’s part of the magic this duo brings to their record, and part of what gives Shovels and Rope their authenticity.
What makes Shovels and Rope stand out from the Decemberists, or say Mumford & Sons, or even Miranda Lambert and whomever she is singing with this week, is the joy that comes through their voices. Something you can hear on more than one track. They can both belt it, and most of their music finds their fine voices interacting, intertwining, and entertaining. Their spare sound coupled with their engaging lyrics remind me of John Doe and Exene Cervenka, of the punk group X, and the Americana group The Knitters. In my opinion you don’t hear enough deuts. Why don’t more bands incorporate dual voices? That’s not for me to decide. That’s way above my paygrade. I, like you, listen to music for the joy of it. And Swimming Time is a joy. Come on in, the water’s fine.
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