How will you write the title of Jason Isbell’s Something More Than Free album review? You write it with just the name of the singer and the name of the album itself is how. It could describe in many ways, but the title of the album is enough to stand on its own.
Jason Isbell’s 2013 album Southeastern is a massive success. It hauled Isbell out on his spotty solo career and saves him from alcoholic-infused lifestyle. Thus, Southeastern album was driven by the artist’s tortured soul, which turned out to be his very own redemption. Yet he does not have the same kind of pressure put on his shoulder with Something More Than Free. How can it live then without being overshadowed by its predecessor? Jason Isbell’s answer resonates through the line of his song.
“This is how you make yourself vanish into nothing,” Isbell sings in “24 Frames,” a track ambling in an easy, pop-isk pace with an underlying ugly realization of what he deems as truth.
Get yourself absorbed in the work, while unloading the baggage in the process. That is how to do it and it works well for him. Something More Than Free disproves the notion of tortured soul, making music better than those who are satisfied with their lives, as the three-year sober Jason Isbell delivered another of the likes of Southeastern.
The album veers in the range of simmering acoustic in the likes of the understated 3-minute track “Flagship” into the loud, electro-touched “Palmetto Rose.” There’s also Isbell’s mostly confined vocal with only in-between did he allow to flex them; cut through with extended guitar plays in which we can hear in stomping “How to Forget” and poignant “Something More Than Free” to name some. Fiddles, piano, and quiet acoustic to shrill guitar riffs accompany Isbell’s at most times whispering, sometimes sharp, but always aching vocals.
Southeastern and Something More Then Free has the same vibes coming from them. The deep, lyrical content and the founding acoustic feel are present; however, Isbell polished the edges of his new album and refrains a repeat of songs like “Cover Me Up.” Yet it does not hold back the surge of power running in the veins of the album. The lack of punches was made up by his unrivaled storytelling, then couple it with unpretentious music, you have Something More Than Free crosses international borders and echoing across different faiths.
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