Richmond Fontaine’s fourth album, released in 2002, is an altogether less frantic affair than its predecessor, the damaged Lost Son. From the opening track, Winner’s Casino, the feeling is fairly relaxed and very country-rock, thanks to Paul Brainard’s prominent pedal steel guitar. Out of State emerges from the murk of the previous track with a brightly, picked guitar over Willy Vlautin’s miserable lyrics (“shut the curtains, put a blanket over them…. no one knows where we are, we could stay like this for days”).
Northline (which also became the title of Vlautin’s second, exceptional novel) is an anthemic lament of a girl whose “letters turned to postcards and then never appeared”. The band change tack later with two instrumentals back-to-back, the country-rocking Twyla and the atonal, ambient and atmospheric Patty’s Retreat, which acts as a musical dust settling before the second half of the album.
The optimism of the music contrasts directly with the heavily downbeat lyrics, particularly on final two tracks Five Degrees Below Zero, possibly the cheeriest thing on the album. Western Skyline offers a little hope, like a new dawn “where golden light shines down upon everything”.
Vlautin is a great writer but not a particularly strong singer, however his band provide an empathetic backing.
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