A story that deserves more than competency
A cowboy from the 1890s is abducted by aliens and transported to the 1990s. That’s the plot of Jason Boland & the Stragglers’ first concept album (and 10th album overall), and it’s certainly intriguing on paper—a classic American archetype removed from his time to and transported to one unfamiliar with him. Shame that The Light Saw Me really isn’t that interesting. The band attempts to mix up their formula of electric guitars and world-weary vocals, but it doesn’t pan out. Instead, people are left with insufficient drama in the delivery and little atmosphere in the compositions to support the narrative.
Boland & the Stragglers are one of the forerunners of the red dirt sound, which resembles alt-country in its embrace of rough rock muscle but lacks the hooks or pop sensibility of music by the likes of Old ’97s, for example. The heavier guitars help Boland and the Stragglers stand out from their peers, and the coiling electric leads on “Terrifying Nature” and “The Light Saw Me” have plenty of sizzle. The first half is familiar territory between these raucous cuts and the ballad “Here for You,” with its harmonies and fiddle solo. It’s nothing new for the Stragglers, but it’s executed fine and is certainly the stronger half.
A concept like this seems perfect for the recent influx of dream country, with its twinkling atmospherics aimed at creating a cosmic sensation. This sound comes through successfully on “Straight Home.” With its slower tempo and constant pedal steel flutters and truncated anguished guitar chords, there’s an oppressive, brooding quality to the song that works even in the face of its clippy acoustics.
But the rest of the second half, which is concerned with the cowboy arriving in the present day, never taps into this same spark. “Restless Spirits” has some great, soulful harmonies, but it’s too bright and forceful—it would’ve benefitted from sounding more fragile and timid. As the title suggests, “Future” is supposed to sound strange and out-of-place with its watery twinkles and funky bass, but it’s too breezy to capture the cowboy’s terror at landing in the present day, and it isn’t quite wild enough to come across as a zany slap-in-the-face to the fish-out-of-water protagonist.
The largest source of the album’s incoherence is Jason Boland himself. He has a great voice with a lot of warmth and tenderness, but it doesn’t fit this subject matter. Halfway through the album, Ken Layne, host of a podcast called Desert Oracles Radio, delivers two spoken word passages discussing parallels between aliens and cryptids, and how eureka moments in science, art and religion are more similar than followers of any would like to believe. It’s put through a filter to sound surreal, but Boland can’t match it with his straight-laced vocals, lacking in any pretensions. He’s at his best when he sings about a touching subject matter and interesting stories grounded in real life, like “Hard Times are Relative,” which uses the cowboy’s time travel to comment on a changing world.
The album ends with “Faux Reel,” a three-minute jam session with more flair and fun than all the preceding tracks. It’s an enjoyable listen, but for a concept album, it makes little sense as the epilogue. There’s nothing outwardly objectionable about The Light Saw Me—Boland is a veteran who knows how to serve up some comforting meat and potatoes. But the band’s performances simply don’t do justice to the record’s subject matter. Perhaps it’s better to approach it as just another Stragglers album because it falls apart as the concept album it was promised to be.
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