[rating=8.0]
It’s been quite some time since Chris Flemmons fired up his Denton, TX collective The Baptist Generals. Ten long years, in fact, have passed since the critically acclaimed No Silver/No Gold buzzed the music world with its’ ambient and kaleidoscopic whirling dirges and sound-scapes. In this day and age of blogs and self-uploading of songs and music, a decade between output may as well be a century. However, it wasn’t ten years spent in isolation away from the musical landscape. In that time span, Flemmons made several stop-and-start attempts at completing a follow-up. When the finished products refused to measure up to his high demands, Flemmons found other worthy outlets to harness his creativity, like forming a successful local music festival called 35 Denton. Eventually, his band mates, other Dentonites such as Stuart Sikes, Jason Reimer, and Peter Salisbury commandeered the proceedings and helped Flemmons’ songs see the light of day.
The resulting Jackleg Devotional To The Heart, in addition to having the coolest album title of the year, is a fascinating listen and one that deserves a myriad of multiple listens before its’ effect can fully take hold. From the opening chords, the sound is front and center, anchoring each track and creating a conspicuous mess of feedback, ambient noise, and swirling instrumentation. The band is versatile and capable of rocking out, as they do on tracks like the opening instrumental “Machine En Prolepsis”, the follow-up track “Dog That Bit You”, and “3 Bromides”. These straight-ahead rock arrangements are the exception rather the rule, however, as most of the album’s material follows a slow build template that leaves room for nuance and subtlety. You can hear the attention to detail put forth to the material as flourishes of keys, harmonium, and various loops of percussion sail in and out of Flemmons’ cryptic narratives. It’s the kind of album that allows for new discovery over each listen and where the song never sounds quite the same the more times you hear.
What Flemmons is actually singing about remains a mystery, though he offers interesting fodder, both with the lyrics and the song titles themselves. In his dramatic delivery, which at times echoes Jeff Mangum, Nick Cave, and Wayne Coyne, there are moments of frank directness: “My God, that trollop was loud” begins the fractured narrative of “Clitorpus Christi”; some elements of the frustrated romantic: “I try to make the shape of you, but you’re such a shadow in my empty arms” in “Snow on the FM”; and desolate beauty in the repeated lines of “Make no doubts about it. Everything you’ve ever had you will lose it” in the aptly titled “Oblivion”. There’s a lot of head-scratching mystique that leaves the songs’ messages open to interpretation. As Flemmons himself said: “It might be saying a lot, or nothing at all”.
With Jackleg, The Baptist Generals have mostly made up for lost time. While the album loses a bit of steam towards the end, there are enough interesting tweaks and nuances to keep it an arresting listen. Ten more years would be a long time to wait for the band’s next step, so here’s hoping this collection keeps them moving towards further creative exploration.
