Biography
In a recent interview with The A.V. Club, Madisonian songsmith Jeremiah Nelson looked back on 2010 as a total catastrophe in terms of his effort-to-production ratio. With an album shelved and a tough break from his last band, Nelson was forced to pivot toward a new direction and hit the ground running. Enter Drugs To Make You Sober, a polished fusion of alt-country and gleaming soundscapes.
“I know the future’s gonna sting / But I won’t let ’em clip my wings,” wails Nelson amidst a wall of harmonica and guitar on “Skin To Touch.” With wings untouched, Drugs finds Nelson perched on another planet from that of his former musical endeavors; exploring deep into watery soundscapes of string loops and synthesizer wobbles while still hanging onto his undeniably solid songwriting. Beneath Drugs’ slick atmospherics, Nelson holds it to a few jangling chords, simple guitar melodies, and big vocal harmonies that help dip the hooks of “Nothin’ To Lose” and “Show To Show” in an extra layer of sugar. (The latter is a darkly sweet folk jaunt with vocalist Heidi Spencer.) In more haunting numbers like “Floodplain” and the reverberated wash of “The End Of The Road,” Nelson keeps his Dan Bejar-touched vocal delivery sparse and simple as to give the moody feel more breathing room.
With the exception of a near 16-minute drone track that, however pleasant it may be, sort of floods out the tail end of Drugs and feels like an afterthought, Nelson’s latest effort represents a voice found in the rubble of a shitty experience, one that can hopefully continue to guide him through many more cohesive, textured, and thoughtful albums like this one.
-By Joel Shanahan, AV Club, March 29, 2011
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