{"id":21214,"date":"2014-07-15T14:22:36","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T14:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-aaron-west-and-the-roaring-twenties\/"},"modified":"2023-01-24T14:41:40","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T14:41:40","slug":"review-aaron-west-the-roaring-twenties-we-dont-have-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-aaron-west-the-roaring-twenties-we-dont-have-each-other\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties – We Don’t Have Each Other"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"When The Wonder Years<\/a>\u2019 frontman Dan \u2018Soupy\u2019 Campbell announced that he would be putting out a solo project through Hopeless Records<\/strong> it got quite a lot of people really quite excited. The prospect of what Campbell may create without his Wonder Years bandmates was an intriguing one, a sense that only increased as he began to reveal the concept behind his new work. An immersive and captivating lyrical narrative has long been the hallmark of Campbell\u2019s writing, but in \u2018We Don\u2019t Have Each Other\u2019<\/em>, the debut release of his alter-ego Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties<\/strong><\/a>, this ability has been taken to whole new heights.<\/p>\n

Campbell has openly referred to the record as \u201ca character study\u201d in interviews, although this doesn\u2019t even come close to doing the album justice. In writing \u2018We Don\u2019t Have Each Other\u2019,<\/em> Campbell has created a vivid, tangable world and life for his deeply flawed yet desperately endearing protagonist Aaron West. He then drops himself squarely into the shoes of this troubled and near-broken man and proceeds to put West and the listener relentlessly through the emotional wringer. The results are harrowing, inspiring, chill inducing and immeasurably beautiful in their execution.<\/p>\n

In many ways musically the backdrop to Aaron\u2019s struggles aren\u2019t too far removed from the softer moments from the Wonder Years\u2019 back catalogue. Albeit given a surprisingly timeless Americana feel by the introduction of bluegrass and folk-inspired brass sections, harmonicas, banjos and steel and slide guitars. Some inspired production choices from The Early November\u2019s Ace Enders. Allows these elements to give enough sense of life and feeling, while being understated enough to not detract from the narrative or its vocal delivery.<\/p>\n

Getting the opening track of an album right can be tricky at the best of times. Throw in the need to establish multiple central characters, their physical and emotional in place life and set in motion the key events of their story, as well as setting mood and tone, and it\u2019s clear Campbell has set himself a tall order to get things going. However\u00a0\u2018Our Apartment\u2019<\/em> does all of this with aplomb. The track starts with West wistfully recalling the details of the home and life he shared with his soon to be ex-wife Diane with a down beat low key delivery over steady finger picked acoustic guitars. The song quickly swells with some deceptively cheerful wind sections and a jaunty banjo line belying West\u2019s torment and his fears over where his life is leading.<\/p>\n

\u2019Grapefruit\u2019<\/em> furthers West\u2019s slide into sadness and disarray, tying to evoke a higher power\u2019s help to explain why he has been abandoned by both his god and the woman he loves. The track is the first to refer to the heart-breaking event in West\u2019s life that has triggered the collapse of his world, and aided by crashing crescendos of lightly distorted guitars and cymbals played off against slower melancholic acoustic sections, creates inescapable feelings of sorrow, anxiety and trepidation on the part of the listener.<\/p>\n

The tumbling angst-ridden riffs of \u2018St Joe Keeps\u2019\u00a0<\/em>sees West still struggling to find his feet and slow his descent into despair and alcoholism. The vivid descriptions of West\u2019s return to his Mother and the catholic iconography of her home, show further flashes of the attention to detail and place that makes the world in which the album exists seem so real.<\/p>\n

Lead single \u2018Divorce and The American South\u2019<\/em> is West\u2019s plaintive and desperate last appeal for his wife to return; mid-tempo strummed acoustic chords underpinned by haunting slide guitars soundtracking his admission of his faults and a battle to become the better person West believes he needs to become. More so then any other track this pulls at the heartstrings and creates a huge sense of empathy, leaving you rooting for West to overcome his demons and win back what he has lost.<\/p>\n

From this point forward the record sees it\u2019s protagonist begin to accept and make sense of his lot, the music subtly mellowing and becoming more soothing in tone to accompany this change in mentality.<\/p>\n

\u2019Carolina Coast\u2019<\/em> provides the record\u2019s most reflective and ambivalent moment as the story begins to draw itself to a close. Unusually Campbell chooses to draw his soul-searching, life-affirming tale to a close with a cover of The Mountain Goats\u2019 \u2018Going To Georgia\u2019<\/em>. This turns out to be an inspired choice, bringing the story to a suitably conflicted, but in the end undeniably positive conclusion. The track is by far the simplest on the record musically, featuring just Campbell, his acoustic guitar and some subtly place organ swells that draws \u2018We Don\u2019t Have Each Other\u2019<\/em> to a nicely understated but cautiously optimistic close.<\/p>\n

In \u2018We Don\u2019t Have Each Other\u2019<\/em> Campbell has done something really quite remarkable, creating a world and a character so rounded and complete, and recounted in such minute detail, that his audience can\u2019t help but feel every ounce of despair, futility and confusion that conflicts West\u2019s mind in the keenest of ways. Campbell has shown beyond any doubt that he is a master storyteller and one of the most unique and gifted lyricists anywhere on the planet. There is artistry here that even the likes of Dylan or Hemmingway would be proud of.<\/p>\n

5\/5<\/p>\n