Released in late September, it’s hard to believe that we missed the initial furore surrounding Home, the latest album from the award-winning John Butler Trio. Home sees John Butler working closely with his long-time friend and producer Jan Skubiszewski to craft a record with a deeply personal vibe, John ruminating on anxiety, family, life, love and what it means to be a modern man. As a result, many of the tracks see John working in more of a solo format, incorporating aspects of electronic music and hip hop into the mix alongside the more familiar country, folk and blues elements.
The wide sonic scope of the album is laid out immediately on the glorious Tahitian blue, which has a rich, warm sound that draws from pop, hip-hop and blues in its wide-eyed quest for melodic perfection. At heart, it’s a gorgeous pop song with a production job that sparkles in the sunlight, and it really gets the album off to a flying start. Next up, a gorgeously gritty guitar tone reminiscent of Neil Young via Sonny Landreth launches the bluesy wade in the water. With electronic percussion, gutsy slide and layers of vocal harmonies, wade in the water hits exactly the right tone with which to follow-up the wonderful opening cut. The Appalachian stylings of just call has a rippling rhythm that skips around dense layers of synth to create a pop song that slips from earthen verses to an airy chorus with ease. In contrast, the taut rhythm of running away sees John’s lovely, bluesy guitar nailed down tight, the percussion driving the song hard to where it needs to go. Perhaps the most unexpected cut, even when taking the heavy use of the studio into account, home pairs tribal drums with skittering beats, resulting in a track that would not sound out of place in the charts. Yet, for all the studio wizardry on display, the vocal harmonies and guitar work provide the music with a human heart that most modern pop lacks. The first half of the album comes to an end with the singer-songwriter strum of miss your love. A mid-tempo ballad, it’s not a million miles away from where Kings of Leon were headed before the stadiums swallowed their soul, and it brings the shades down neatly before the intermission.
Opening the album’s second half, Faith is a lengthy track that sees John searching for meaning in a difficult and crowded existence. The track builds to a wonderful crescendo, and then fades away leaving the countrified and reflective coffee, methodone & cigarettes. A somewhat downbeat track that pitches winsome slide guitar against a huge wall of bass, it proves surprisingly effective and the sparse nature of the arrangement really helps. Another track that makes great use of John’s sympathetic guitar work, tell me why moves from its restrained opening into modern soul territory. Arguably the least successful song on the album, for all its instrumental prowess, brown eyed bird edges a touch too far into the sort of music you’d expect to play out over the closing credits of a movie, although, get past the aching synths of the opening verse and there’s some lovely instrumentation to be found. Another bluesy cut with strong synth underpinnings, you don’t have to be angry anymore recalls Eric Clapton’s experiments on pilgrim, which had a similarly electronic vibe. It’s one of the songs where the electronic elements are less successful, although the chorus will glue itself in your head for days on end. The album ends with we want more, a sweet coda to the album built around tribal rhythms and yet more of John’s expressive guitar work. It proves a fitting end to the album
Home sees the John Butler Trio engaging with modern technology and creating an album that, for the most part, successfully combines organic instrumentation with the power of the studio. Occasionally the opulence of the arrangements misfires – especially in the latter half of the album – with a couple of tracks erring too far towards technology at the expense of their humanity. However, when the balance is right (as on the opening pair of cuts), the results are exceptional and there are some lovely tracks on offer. 8
