Returning after a half-decade hiatus, one prompted by leader
Evan Felker
taking the time to address personal problems,
Turnpike Troubadours
do sound older and wiser on
A Cat in the Rain
, their first album since 2017's
A Long Way from Your Heart
.
Felker
spends a fair amount of time alluding to recovery and rebirth throughout
, opening the album lamenting the empty promises he's given and later claiming "I don't miss the taste of liquor" on "The Rut," a song that proceeds at the weary gait yet still carries a hint of hope. It'd be a mistake to think of the album as autobiographical, though: the closing "Won't You Give Me One More Chance," a tender campfire singalong that could be interpreted as a love letter to the wife he divorced and remarried during the time his band was away from the spotlight, but it's not a
original, it's a
Jerry Jeff Walker
cover.
is also not the work of a singer/songwriter masquerading as a band. Co-founder
R.C. Edwards
wrote "Chipping Mill," perhaps the record's purest blast of Red Dirt Country, and former member
John Fulbright
penned "Three More Days," a loping love song accentuated by candied vocal harmonies. "Three More Days" illustrates how producer
Shooter Jennings
helps
paint upon a broader canvas, finding the right shades of dirt to add grit to the earthy rambles "Mean Old Sun" and "Black Sky," while letting the quieter moments feel intimate, almost overheard. The expanded palette -- which is as much emotional as it is musical -- feels especially vibrant because
is the group's tightest record, lacking the amiable detours that gave previous albums character, sometimes at the expense of the overall impact. Here,
feel determined to deliver a forceful comeback that accentuates all their strengths, and
is precisely that: an album designed for wide-open vistas but is aimed directly at the heart. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine