The singer/songwriter/producer's third New West release (and fifth overall, hence the title) doesn't expand his established Americana boundaries, but does feel more confident and at times rocks a little harder than his previous efforts.
Stephen Bruton's cracked leather voice is also more controlled, talk-singing and slipping into these songs like an old pair of jeans. There is a subtly propulsive
Little Feat funk groove to tracks such as "The Clock" and especially the very
Lowell George-ish "Walk by Faith," helped by
Feat keyboardist/songwriter
Bill Payne, a member of
Bruton's studio ensemble for this effort and co-writer of the peppy "Put Me Out of Your Misery." There are also echoes of
the Band, particularly on the stately horns that accentuate the elegiac "Fading Man" and "Treasured Wounds."
Bruton fluently nails this lazy, swampy Southern sound that only occasionally explodes into rock & roll on the
Chuck Berry-styled
Sam Moore-
Junior Walker "Ordinary Man," an obscure cover from the soundtrack of the movie Tapeheads. Generally though, these are soulful, reflective, sometimes openly spiritual songs, sung with honest, even intense determination directly from
Bruton's possibly bruised soul. This is particularly effective on "The Clock," where a wah-wah guitar and wailing backing female vocalist accentuate lyrics of "There's a wake-up call coming from the doomsday clock." Not everything jumps out, but repeated spins yield a heightened appreciation of the low-boil ballads that dominate the album's sound. From the Five is a thoughtful, reflective, and impressive set of beautifully produced and imagined songs from an underrated architect of the Texas singer/songwriter tradition. ~ Hal Horowitz