Sometimes bands become too big for their own good. By today’s standards, having already enjoyed a decent measure of success individually, Joy Williams and John Paul White were thrust together in 2008 for a songwriting session that obviously yielded something fruitful as they decided to team up on what was then a supposedly permanent basis and deem themselves The Civil Wars. They released their ridiculously popular and exquisitely crafted debut album Barton Hollow in 2011 and the rest is rocky and emotional history.
Not only is it no secret that things are not going well between Williams and White currently, it is basically being shouted from the rooftops of many major media outlets. From The Today Show, to an interview with The New York Times, to a piece on NPR, Williams has been anything but quiet about the rocky road that has been traversed by her and White in the last couple of years. But she won’t actually say what happened. All she will say is, “If you want to know what happened, listen to the album.” Meanwhile White has said close to nothing.
Many fans were delighted to hear that their sophomore album The Civil Wars was even happening, given the group’s November 2012 announcement that they were cancelling the rest of their tour, and sort of sounded like they were just breaking up. Come to find out, the album was written and recorded pre-hiatus and is quite possibly a large part of what led to it.
Given all the attention that has been surrounding this group leading up to this release, it’s hard not to listen to it without any preconceived notions. Often that can skew one’s view of something and either set it up for unjust failure or perhaps even unjust success. So how does The Civil Wars fare? Is it good on it’s own? Does it hold its own with Barton Hollow? Or is all this hype enough to overshadow it?
The record opens with the single “The One That Got Away”, which showcases Williams’ and White’s vocal talents and perhaps better than any Civil Wars song to date, how well they blend together. Then there’s the cool Rick Rubin co-produced second track “I Had Me a Girl”, which is lead by White and shows off just how smoky and awesome his solo voice is. It also features a really gritty sounding electric guitar throughout, which is a fresh sound for these two. Another noteworthy song is the mandolin-driven “Disarm”, which is actually a Smashing Pumpkins cover, believe it or not. Amongst all of the press surrounding this band currently, that is one thing that hasn’t been mentioned. Perhaps they didn’t want it known. But fans of the Pumpkins will listen to it and think, “I’ve heard this somewhere before.” It’s everything a cover should be in that you can tell where it comes from, but it’s difficult to do so because the band puts so much of their own spin on it.
It would be – and has been – really easy to jump into this album too deep and analyze every lyric of every song and then formulate your own version of what you think ‘happened’ between these two people, especially in light of Joy Williams’ comment. What I have come to realized is that doing so is doing this album an injustice. As difficult as it might be to separate the music from the drama, the last thing that a cool band like this needs is to be surrounded by something that takes away from the music, because The Civil Wars is everything a great sophomore album should be. It’s darker, grittier, and it appropriately leaves you wondering what will even happen next. Yet, it’s hopeful.
Whatever is going on between Williams and White will hopefully work itself out because it was clear on Barton Hollow and is clearer still on The Civil Wars that when they get together to make music, something bigger than the two of them happens.
The Civil Wars – I Had Me a Girl
