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Album reviews Music

Justin Townes Earle – Single Mothers

Rating: NNN


His label says he’s married and recently sober, but the only hint of new-found domestic contentment on Justin Townes Earle’s fifth album is peppy rock ‘n’ roller My Baby Drives.

Beyond that, Single Mothers is stacked with the kind of soulful, desperately lonely ballads that Earle is known for, songs like Today And A Lonely Night and the bare-bones ballad It’s Cold In This House. The songs are more sparsely written than they’ve been in the past, even as Earle draws from a familiar well of imagery: rain and snow, trains, burnt photographs.

But it’s a sad irony that just as Earle has hit his stylistic stride – beautiful, pedal-steel-soaked country and poppier soul – he’s writing fewer tracks that’ll floor you.

There’s not much hope in his songs – that includes the title track – but he’s good at meditating on being low. “I’m not drowning,” he sings on Picture In A Drawer, “I’m just seeing how long I can stay down.”

Top track: Today And A Lonely Night

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