Album Review

Time erodes most things, but the chemistry between two songwriters is usually impervious to even a large span of years gone by. No matter what personal animosity might have existed at some point, a symbiotic musical relationship can usually pick up as though nothing has changed.

That maxim proves true in the case of Mark Olson and Gary Louris, the two leading lights of the Jayhawks, a Minnesota-based group that achieved the height of their success during the early 90’s when alt-country, their genre of choice, was at its cultural peak. After their 1995 triumph Tomorrow The Green Grass, Olson left the band to pursue other opportunities. Louris carried on with the Jayhawks and though the quality of the band didn’t dip far (check out Rainy Day Music from 2003), they didn’t approach the heights of their earlier success.

Olson and Louris have reunited for their new album Ready For The Flood, which ditches the Jayhawks banner but carried on like the follow-up to Tomorrow The Green Grass. Those high-lonesome harmonies haven’t aged a bit, and the duo wisely emphasizes those complementary voices for all they’re worth. Most songs have the men harmonizing all the way through, with Olson’s plaintive moans in one speaker and Louris’ aching wails in the other.

The music hasn’t changed all that much either, with the exception of an even more pronounced emphasis on the folkier aspects of their classic Jayhawks’ sound. With no band behind them, the two men keep things at a low volume and accompany themselves on acoustic guitars and little else. Drums are present on less than half the songs. A ghostly organ sneaks in when appropriate, as on the Basement Tapes-style reverie “Kick The Wood” and the straightforward and affecting “My Gospel Song For You.” But other than that and the stray harmonica or mandolin here and there, things are kept hushed and intimate.

Listen to “Kick the Wood”
Listen to “My Gospel Song for You”

When the tunes are strong enough, no other embellishment is really necessary. “Black Eyes” is the best of the lot, as those harmonies are beautifully bittersweet against the guitar arpeggios. “When The Wind Comes Up” offers up a beguilingly contradictory mix of anguish and assurance, and “Bloody Hands” has a bouncy beat but sad lyrics. The latter contains the line “What the mind forgets, the soul retains,” which is just the right kind of ruminative phrase to fit those lovely voices.

Listen to “Black Eyes”
Listen to “When the Wind Comes Up”
Listen to “Bloody Hands”

Alas, another thing that hasn’t changed is the frustratingly vague lyrical tendencies of the pair. These can be forgiven when the melodies are memorable, but at times songs go by leaving the impression of a pretty shell with a void at the center.

The other problem is that even though Louris and Olson haven’t changed much, the musical landscape has. Much of the sound that they helped to create in the early 90’s has been assimilated by both rock and country, so there isn’t much novelty to be had from listening to this album. It goes only as far as the strength of its songs, and with only three or four sure shots out of 13 tracks, that isn’t quite as far as you would hope.

Jayhawks fans will likely find little to quibble about on Ready For The Flood and can just revel in the long-awaited reunion of this songwriting duo. But those who missed the boat the first time around may have a hard time figuring out just why this pair was missed in the first place.

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