English Oceans

by Drive-By Truckers

Overview

For years, Mike Cooley has been the George Harrison of the Drive-By Truckers, the guy who contributed two or three fine songs to each DBTs album while frontman Patterson Hood penned the bulk of the band's repertoire. That changes with English Oceans, the band's tenth studio album, where Cooley gets co-star status for a change -- he penned six of the album's 13 tunes, and sings lead on Hood's "Til He's Dead or Rises." By accident or design, the increased presence of Cooley's songs gives English Oceans a feel of call and response, as Cooley's smart but plainspoken style faces off against Hood's more artful approach as they both spin tales of characters struggling to make sense of the world around them. While the album opens with a world-class rocker, Cooley's "Shit Shots Count," which could pass for a Dixie-fried outtake from Exile on Main St., for the most part English Oceans finds the Truckers in a thoughtful, low-key mood, with the guitar firepower dialed back a bit and both writers imagining characters whose lives range from the poignant ("Primer Coat," "When He's Gone") to the bitter ("The Part of Him") to the tragic ("Made Up English Oceans," "When Walter Went Crazy"). Subtlety has never been this band's biggest selling point, but on English Oceans the Drive-By Truckers show they can pare back their arrangements and create something more atmospheric without stripping their songs of what makes them powerful; Jay Gonzalez's spectral keyboards add a wealth of detail to "Made Up English Oceans" and "Hanging On," and drummer Brad Morgan and bassist Matt Patton are a rhythm section that can rise to any challenge these songs present. Ten albums and 18 years on from their first show, the Drive-By Truckers are still capable of mixing things up and showing off new sides of their skill set, and that's certainly the case with English Oceans, which shows them making wise use of all their talents -- not just Mike Cooley. ~ Mark Deming

Product Details

Release Date:	05/24/2024
Label:	Ato Records
UPC:	0880882620219
Rank:	83905

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Drive-By Truckers   Primary Artist
George Davidson   Sax (Tenor),Guest Artist
Adam Courson   Trumpet,Guest Artist

Technical Credits

Lewys Evans   Intern
Ryan O'Keefe   Intern
Kaitlyn Eddy   Intern
Patterson Hood   Composer,Group Member
Earl Hicks   Composer
Greg Calbi   Mastering
Jay Gonzalez   Composer,Group Member,Horn Arrangements
David Barbe   Mixing,Engineer,Producer
Brad Morgan   Composer,Group Member
Mike Cooley   Composer,Group Member
David McClister   Photography
Wes Freed   Artwork,Paintings
Lilla Hood   Art Direction
Drew Vandenberg   Mixing,Assistant Engineer
John Cooley   Composer
Matt Patton   Composer,Group Member
Henry Barbe   Assistant
Traci Thomas   Publicity
Rob Malone   Composer
Wyatt Pless   Assistant