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When perusing reactions in the fanosphere to these West Coast-based southern rockers, terms such as ‘honest’ (as if the world is full of mendacious, disingenuous rock bands trying to deceive) and ‘no frills’ are often used. But while the motto on Robert Jon & The Wreck’s Bandcamp page reads “music, miles and whiskey”, bands like this often need an extra spark to set them apart from their fellow roadhogs and good ol’ boys. On this ninth official album, the latest in a prolific string of releases, their determination to find that is well in evidence.
Here they’ve benefitted from the input of Nashville super-producer Dave Cobb (who has also helped polish the sound of names such as Jason Isbell, Rival Sons, Sturgill Simpson and Brandi Carlile), but wisely they’re not trying to reinvent the southern rock wheels on which they have been rolling around the US for the past decade or more.
RJ&TW sound for all the world as if they’ve been raised in a barroom on the Bayou, despite all being from the considerably less gnarly Orange County, California.
But if you can reinvent yourself anywhere, rock’n’roll is the art form in which to do it, and over the course of the 14 years they’ve been playing together, RJ&TW have earned the right to keep channelling the spirit of the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd et al. They’re also becoming more accomplished at doing so with every new release, as Heartbreaks & Last Goodbyes demonstrates.
Sittin’ Pretty opens proceedings at an exhilarating pelt, but further into the album a more anthemic feel prevails. Dark Angel and Ashes In The Snow are woven around tight riffs, while Highway’s twin-guitar refrain is backed up by an insistent, Motown-style backbeat. Elsewhere, Old Man builds from despondent piano and wistful, emotive guitar to an organ-soaked, arms-outstretched chorus.
Finally, the mood darkens further on Heartbreak & Last Goodbye as it broods despondently on the scars of the past, before the crunching, salutary sign-off Keep Myself Clean explains: ‘All my friends are dead or in jail’, but resolves to avoid any such fate with help from the redemptive power of rock’n’roll. The music Robert Jon & The Wreck are making now sounds life-affirming enough to do all that and a lot more.