Album Review: Blitzen Trapper

By Aaron Davis (for JHWeekly.com)American Goldwing BLITZEN TRAPPERWhile this set is a diversion from what Blitzen Trapper fans are used to (guess they’ve always been appreciated for inconsistency), it will attract an even wider fanbase. It’s not groundbreaking fresh as some of singer-songwriter/frontman Eric Earley’s earlier material, but the vocal melodies are damn catchy, and arrangements stay closer to the tried and true. A bit of massive, fuzzed-out hooks a la Jack White and Jimmy Page (“Street Fighting Sun”) are dispersed by feel-good melodies (“My Hometown”) that are built for sunny spring days with the windows down, even when the self-pity and somber characters show up. Seventies Southern rock (“Fletcher”) and country-folk shuffles (“Taking it Easy Too Long”) are the footholds, trading fill-every-single-space clutter for deeper, kick-drum driven beats that beckon at least a subtle head-bob. Earley backtracks to subjects and stories from his childhood with production that is straightforward and crisp, and the closest that the band has ever been to classic Americana. At its best, American Goldwing is very much a singer-songwriter album with clever and crafty instrumentation of varying tones.