Categories : Featured Review, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 4/5 Released: September 20, 2005 Reviewer: Nathan Atnikov |
Luke Doucet’s new album, Broken (and other rogue states), is a break-up record in its finest form. The album intricately weaves through the ins and outs of an ending relationship, and examines what seems like each moment in the getting over it process. Instead of wallowing in sadness for the entire time, Broken showcases Doucet’s understanding of the gamut of emotions that comes with ths territory.
The album realistically and relentlessly shifts between sadness (Wallow), desperation (Emily, Please), bitterness (Broken One), and freedom (Free). Doucet’s wobbly alt-country is the perfect stage for making the characters and emotions in his songs painfully realistic. With a project as daunting as making an entire album about a single event, it would be all too easy to go over the top emotionally with either immature anger (see: limpbizkit) or melodrama (see: Celine Dion). Doucet artfully avoids these traps by singing even the most depressing songs with an audible grin coming out of the corner of his mouth. On Emily, Please, Doucet, while pleading not to be kicked out, explains “I’m on the brink of being sober.” One of the most charming songs, It’s Not the Liqour I Miss, shows Doucet at his most simple, and at the same time, most eloquent: “If I never said I’m sorry / it’s not ’cause I’m not / it’s just that some words are too big and too hard / and they just get caught.”
Broken (and other rogue states) is one of the most emotionally vivid albums of the year. And while some may find the subject self-indulgent, that does not take away from its simplistic beauty.
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