The Bruces - War of the Bruces
(Misra)
Alex McManus, the man behind The Bruces, has a resume that reads like a laundry list that looks like an ancient scroll that is reminiscent of the early chapters of Genesis with the begetting and such which unfurls like a minor who's who of alt-country, if that genre can be so applied to the likes of Vic Chesnutt and Lambchop. I think it can, at least, and in that vein, The War of the Bruces finds itself firmly planted.
Great, another alt-country album, and I agree, there's nothing that remarkable about this record. It's pleasant enough though; it has that kind of rustic charm, and McManus has a very Jay Farrar quality to his voice. The instrumentation is nice and varied, with a lot of things going on in the field. It's subtle too, not over-powering, not aurally-throttling, but just there. I can imagine putting this on for a night-time cookout in the backyard, people sitting around grilling, beers in hand, paper lanterns surrounding the porch—that kind of tableau seems frozen in my mind, of course, this is utterly subjective, but you get the idea that this is mood that the album elicits.
The lyrics evoke the same idea, quasi-abstract, mostly metaphor—nothing too out there, but at the same time nothing too literal, I suppose Yeats or Eliot-ish in tone, they're poetic enough to hold their own, and fit in quite well with the music. I definitely recommend this for anyone who's a fan of the aforementioned bands; however, I don't think it holds much for anyone else.
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