Rock & roll often has an unfortunate habit of locking musicians into an extended adolescence, not surprising in a medium where plenty of foolish behavior is not just acceptable but encouraged. Though the Old 97’s were hardly known for their bad habits, the fact they were still singing songs about chasing women and getting drunk decades into their career suggested that at least creatively, they had a flexible attitude regarding maturity. However, in the late 2010s fate gave the bandmembers a few reminders that they weren’t as young as they once were. Drummer Philip Peeples had a brush with death following a skull fracture, guitarist Ken Bethea started experiencing numbness and loss of motor function in his hands that required spinal surgery, and lead…
…singer and main songwriter Rhett Miller faced up to a drinking problem and gave up alcohol. (Bassist Murry Hammond managed to escape unscathed.)
2020’s Twelfth, a fitting title for their 12th album, is the sound of a band who haven’t given up on the raucous mix of rock & roll and country accents that they’ve made their own since their first LP arrived in 1994. Lyrically, though, this music often deals with facing up to responsibility and looking back at past mistakes with a new level of clarity. “Vices make you hungry/And you never can get full,” from “Our Year,” is a pithy rejoinder to the cheerful reprobate Miller impersonated on 2014’s Most Messed Up, while “The Dropouts” is an uncharitable portrait of a man-child’s lot in life, and the buzzy guitars and pitiless self-examination of “Confessional Boxing” is as candid as anything this band has ever recorded. (Even if Miller is pursuing a one-night stand on “Diamonds on Neptune,” he leaves no doubt it won’t go well and that she won’t speak well of him.) “I Like You Better,” meanwhile, is the testimony of a man who wants to be a better man for the woman he loves, and “Why Don’t We Ever Say We’re Sorry,” written and sung by Hammond, is a simple but powerful statement of what’s gone wrong and what he needs to do right.
There’s plenty of great, satisfying twangy rock on Twelfth, which is what we’ve come to expect from the Old 97’s. There’s also a level of self-awareness and maturity that’s new to them, and that makes Twelfth a brave and valuable release from this great band. — AMG
