You should be listening to Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit's new album, The Nashville Sound, which came out last Friday. I know it was buried by a glut of new records—Lorde, Young Thug, 2 Chainz, Big Boi, Kevin Morby, and Fleet Foxes all released fascinating albums on the same day—but The Nashville Sound is a singular achievement for Isbell, worthy of endless replays. "The Americana pigeonhole sets up rootsy expectations Isbell has too keen a mind for," Robert Christgau wrote of the artist in last week's Expert Witness. "And though he obviously isn't the only Nashville guy ever to placate his demons with Jack and coke or the only folkie ever beset by night thoughts, neither "country" or "singer-songwriter" suits him either—he's too intellectual for one, too downhome for the other."Last night, Isbell and his band took the record's penultimate track, "Hope the High Road," to Colbert. It's one of the most straightforwardly rousing tracks that The Nashville Sound offers—overdriven guitars, Springsteenian melodies, anxious lyrics—so it hit late night just right. Look, if you don't melt when Isbell turns around to his wife, Amanda Shires, on violin and winks in the middle of a line, I just can't help you.Alex Robert Ross is on Twitter.
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