I really tried to not like this album, I mean the idea of this album. Everyone I knew loved it and even though I hadn’t heard it yet, I didn’t want to like it for the simple reason that I wanted to be oh so much above all that. What an idiot I make of myself when I get all highschool like this. Of course, the moment I put it on, I loved it. J. Tillman has created a masterpiece in musical time travel.  He has brought back the soft male voice that we learned to love in men like Nick Drake and John Martyn, accompanied by a simple guitar strummed or plucked and a bit of piano and the barest of background singers to keep him from being lonely. It is not a weak, sad voice that haunts you with its fragility. It’s only a man who is so nearby as to be able to speak quietly in your ear, by the light of a fire on a cold night. And you feel the warmth of both him and that fire with his voice.

I lied when I titled this post. Although I do love this record. I have a hard time convincing myself that I wouldn’t love J. Tillman’s voice regardless of the songs he sings. But when I get down to actually dissecting these songs I must be honest and tell you that they are also what makes Year in the Kingdom so wonderful. The title track, “Year In The Kingdom” is a melancholy tale about looking back, wanting to go back. It’s a very simple song, just vocals and acoustic guitar and it sets the tone for the entire album. It tells you, you’d better settle in with a good hot drink on a comfy chair and put your feet up. Sound effects and backup singers come and go throughout the rest of the record, in due time and often in not-unexpected but not-alarmingly surprising ways. Turn this thing up even though it’s not some sort of “wall of sound” project. You’re going to want to hear the ends of his words and phrases as he trails off; you’re going to want to hear that saw bend on “Crosswinds.” Bells ring, wind howls, hands clap, and more than a few songs go back to that simple formula of voice and guitar, dulcimer or banjo such as  “Age of Man,” a powerful piece, full of Christian imagery and hauntingly stark.

But these songs are more than just pretty canvases for a beautiful voice. Yes, the production is what you will notice at first listen. That voice is pushed way up to the front. And as bare and almost unadorned as it is, I can’t help but reason that it is that way in order to convey to us clearly those cryptic words. Some songs sit comfortably with me, the ones about “you” and “me” and finding a peace between us and dealing with the passing of our lives and of other people’s lives. It’s the rest of the lyrics, the ones about “birthrights” and “men gathered in praise” and being “held in a river bed” (baptism), that cause me to search for a more literal message. It’s simply not there. This is no “Jesus Saves” record. As in all art, I’ve come to think that J. Tillman drew from his life, from our world, the themes of forgiveness and redemption and self-recrimination and cloaked them in religious images as the velvet robes they are to wear for this performance. As J. Tillman concludes this album, “Light of the Living” finishes before I’m ready to let it go. I have to listen to it three or four times to even make sure I heard all the words. This short, almost tuneless little song serves its purpose well. Immediately, I scroll up and click on track one, to play the whole thing over again.

Songs like “Though I Have Wronged You” show how this is a true Americana folk album without really relying on traditional folk music structure or instrumentation, if that can be imagined. Vocally, lyrically and certainly in terms of the presentation and production of it, Year in the Kingdom lives exactly within the boundaries of what makes beautiful folk music. It just doesn’t happen to sound all that folksy to me. I’m ok with that. I hope you are too. I make a point of not reading other people’s reviews of new releases that I know I will write about. So if everyone else is calling this album something else entirely, well… as I recently said on these pages, you know how I am, xoxo

go buy this record, now! I’m not kidding. And Chicago, come out and see J. Tillman at the new Lincoln Hall on November 08

(Do I really need to tell you all that he’s a member of Fleet Foxes? Naw, I didn’t think so.)

Tour Dates
11/03 – Neurolux – Boise, ID
11/06 – Music Box Theatre – Minneapolis, MN
11/07 – Turner Hall – Milwaukee, WI
11/08 – Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL
11/10 – The Pike Room at the Crofoot – Pontiac, MI
11/11 – Horseshoe Tavern – Toronto, ON
11/12 – Il Motore – Montreal, QB
11/13 – Space – Portland, ME
11/15 – Middle East Upstairs – Cambridge, MA
11/16 – The Bell House – Brooklyn, NY
11/17 – First Unitarian Church – Philadelphia, PA
11/18 – 9:30 Club – Washington, D.C.
11/20 – Grey Eagle – Asheville, NC
11/21 – The Earl – Atlanta, GA
11/23 – The Bottletree – Birmingham, AL
11/26 – Walter’s on Washington – Houston, TX
11/27 – The Mohawk – Austin, TX
11/28 – Hailey’s – Denton, TX
12/02 – Troubadour – Los Angeles, CA
12/04 – Great American Music Hall – San Francisco, CA
12/11 – The Crocodile – Seattle, WA