Richmond Fontaine
Thirteen Cities
El Cortez Records/Decor

Wow, it's already Richmond's 9th studio record. As always, something's moving, somebody's going somewhere and most of them gets stranded - usually where they never wanted to end up in the first place. It's a god-damned sorry ride for the most part, the characters that is. But you can't help but love them all. Sorry asses as they are, but hey, aren't we all!

That's another Richmond Fontaine ride for us. It's a good ride. I've gotten used to taking it for granted that Willy Vlautin won't run out of stories to tell, with melodies that won't let me down. Well, the melodies won't let me down, but the stories might on a gloomy day.

I'm still a sucker for the Post To Wire record and didn't quite catch up with the Fitzgerlad record. This time they've gone off to Arizona to record the new set of songs, and it has obviously affected the instrumentation - to the better. The steel-guitars are there but so are also the nylon-string guitars.

The titles keeping getting even better - putting a smile on my face, just thinking about them. "$87 And A Guilty Consience That Gets Worse The Longer I Go", "I Fell Into Painting Houses In Phoenix, Arizona" and "Capsized" should give you an idea of where this is headed.

This one does not kick me out of my chair or pull me over but it's still another solid Richmond Fontaine album. And that's good enough for me.

Copyright © 2007 Anders Svendsen