Post Description

‘Micah P Hinson and the Nothing’ is Hinson’s fifth solo album, a covers album and several EPs notwithstanding, and follows previous billings alongside ‘The Gospel of Progress’, ‘The Opera Circuit’, ‘The Red Empire Orchestra’ and ‘The Pioneer Saboteurs’.
The songs that make up the record were written before a trip to Spain that saw Hinson seriously injured in a car crash and lose the use of his arms. In these tragic circumstances, the demos took on a new light, with Hinson requesting the help of several friends including The Twilight Sad to bring everything together. The album was eventually recorded back in Spain with The Aquattro String Quartet and starts with ‘How Are You Just a Dream?’ It’s almost rhetorical question ‘Do I seem fine?’ fights for space amongst frantic guitar soloing as Hinson tells us how he has ‘Been down so low’. With reality failing to live up to his dreams, ‘On the Way Home (to Abilene)’ takes stock in beautiful fashion, lush strings and pedal steel a heart breaking counterpoint for the realisation that ‘It’s falling apart at the seems / I think I see what all this means’.
The One To Save You Now’ has Hinson giving everything to make the high notes before ‘I Ain’t Movin’’ defiantly makes a stand with the words “You can test me all you want / I ain’t changing” sung over a sparse solo piano, the tape hiss in the background adding a sense of frailty to the recording that heightens the effect of the lyrics. ‘The Same Old Shit’ and ‘The Life, Living, Death and Dying of a Certain and Peculiar L.J. Nichols’ bound along with Theremin and pedal steel respectively providing accompaniment. ‘Sons of the USSR’ tells the tale of a Mr Dimitri over a backing track that sounds like it’s being played on a broken turntable while ‘There’s Only One Name’ features bright and fancy finger picking on banjo and guitar.
In ‘God Is Good’, Hinson feels abandoned by Jesus, true love and his parents, left confused in a world where “The homeless keep on dying” but his “Good book claims that God shall be good”, before the stacked vocals and distorted strings of ‘The Quill’ find him at the end of the line, drawing ‘Nothing from this lonely heart’.
Hope does return however, accompanied by violin, xylophone, pedal steel and various bits of percussion on ‘Love Wait for Me’. This sense of optimism is perfectly summed up in the line ‘The road is not too long’ before the album ends with ‘A Million Light Years Away’ and the realisation that although separated it wasn’t difficult to love “The girl that stole my heart away”, Hinson recalling how “The sun would run across your face” backed by a choir, Theremin and strings.
Given its difficult gestation, it makes sense that ‘Micah P Hinson and the Nothing’ should sound so battered and bruised across its twelve tracks. It is the work of a man who wears his heart on his sleeve and, as with the Coen Brothers’ Mrs Hobby, lives the lines he sings. It is also his strongest record to date featuring some truly exceptional song writing and performances. That it ends on such a positive and hopeful note really does bode well for both the man himself and us, his audience.

Tracklisting:
1. How Are You, Just A Dream
2. On The Way Home (To Abilene)
3. The One To Save You Now
4. I Ain’t Movin’
5. The Same Old Shit
6. The Life, Living, DeathAnd Dying Of A Certain And Peculiar L.J. Nichols
7. Sons Of USSR
8. There’s Only One Name
9. God Is Good
10. The Quill
11. Love Wait For Me
12. A Million Light Year (Ghost Track)

{b]Extra Informatie:[/b]
Aantal Discs: 1xCD
Genre: Americana, Folk
Format: MP3 @ 320kbit
Year of Release: 2014
Speelduur: 53 minuten
Cover: Front is in de RARs verwerkt