{"id":378,"date":"2016-04-01T00:05:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T04:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=378"},"modified":"2016-11-09T05:47:01","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T10:47:01","slug":"new-release-roundup-41","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2016\/04\/01\/new-release-roundup-41\/","title":{"rendered":"New Release Roundup: Robbie Fulks, Shonen Knife, Cheap Trick"},"content":{"rendered":"

MUSIC<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Robbie Fulks <\/a>Upland Stories<\/em>
\nThere are few musicians as complete as Robbie Fulks \u2013 as a writer, a singer, a flat-picking guitar player \u2013 and Upland Stories is just further evidence of that. Continuing in the vein of 2013\u2019s fine Gone Away Backward<\/em>, Fulks tells stories delicate and devastating, wistful and full of wit, in a country and bluegrass style. As a writer, he has few equals and an impressive range. The album is full of lyrical gems. Consider \u201cNever Come Home,\u201d in which a man returns to home to let cancer finish him off, just to find all the problems he left behind are still fresh. \u201cFour hundred miles mean nothing\/One man\u2019s troubles are his own\/The land is run down and ragged\/I should have never come home.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lest you think the album is full of gloom, a couple of songs later we get \u201cAunt Peg\u2019s New Old Man,\u201d a charming tale of love in the autumn year. Then another song that cuts deep, \u201cNeeded,\u201d on which Fulks sings, \u201cShe longed to keep it\/I said no, I had my future to think of\/And in her darkest hour she learned\/What young men won\u2019t do for love.\u201d Then a few songs down again, \u201cKaty Kay,\u201d a brazen bluegrass ode to infidelity which gives us the chorus, \u201cHey now, Katy Kay\/Heaven never made one cuter\/If I didn\u2019t love Katy Kay I\u2019d probably have to shoot her.\u201d What makes that track is that you can hear Fulks stumble and laugh on the final chorus, a notice that there are human beings in a room playing this music. <\/p>\n