{"id":23823,"date":"2014-03-24T18:17:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T18:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-chuck-ragan-till-midnight\/"},"modified":"2018-03-17T15:33:48","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T15:33:48","slug":"album-review-chuck-ragan-till-midnight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-chuck-ragan-till-midnight\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Chuck Ragan – Till Midnight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Chuck Ragan<\/strong> that the world is treated to nowadays is not the same entity that was present when Hot Water Music first came to be. He\u2019d be the first to tell you of his personal evolution, and his last-second retreat from the brink of self-destruction. It\u2019s a good thing too, the loss of Ragan<\/strong> would not only have been a damning blow for Hot Water Music, but also for a musical world that would be far worse off without the three stellar solo albums he has released since he first struck out alone. Nearly three years removed from \u2018Covering Ground<\/em>\u2019 and we have finally reached the launch of number four, and the release of \u2018Till Midnight<\/em>\u2019 has been a much anticipated one throughout Ragan<\/strong>\u2019s international audience. For the California statesman, previous efforts are certainly tough to follow, but Ragan has become the epitome of artists improving with age, leaving every reason to retain high hopes for \u2018Till Midnight<\/em>\u2019 continuing that trend.<\/p>\n

\u2018Something May Catch Fire\u2019<\/em> drifts steadily into life before things are kicked into gear, and the singer-songwriter\u2019s vocals seem a little closer to a country drawl than typical Chuck<\/strong> until the chorus reminds you that this is the same old Ragan<\/strong>, as good as he\u2019s ever been. By the second verse, everything seems to have settled into place, and the Californian has you thinking back to \u2018Wish on the Moon\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Hearts of Stone\u2019<\/em> from previous albums, where the fire in his music was a gradually building one, and in a similar fashion \u2018Till Midnight<\/em>\u2019 is packed full of the same ebbs and flows that make the tracks so difficult to get tired of. \u2018Vagabond\u2019<\/em> features members of Lucero and Drag the River, both alumni of previous Revival Tour installments and frequently appearing within the vast family of musicians that have found themselves together as they\u2019ve made the road their home. It\u2019s a family that has swelled to include members of the Gaslight Anthem, Alkaline Trio, Against Me!, the Lawrence Arms as well as Frank Turner, with every new addition leaving their mark on the others and coming away with something new each time. \u2018Gave My Heart Out\u2019<\/em> sees another family member, namely Dave Hause of The Loved Ones, join in the cavalcade of camaraderie and serving up a real highlight at the album\u2019s halfway point. Ragan<\/strong> is at his best both lyrically and vocally, and like so much of his music it\u2019s a real \u201cholding hands in the moonlight\u201d kind of listen. It\u2019s one of the shorter songs on the record, but simultaneously one of the best, leading into a second half that is arguably even better than the first.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big statement, that, especially when you consider that the first half includes the thumping duo of \u2018Non Typical\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Revved\u2019<\/em>, before \u2018Whistleblower\u2019s Song\u2019<\/em> allows the tempo to recede somewhat, albeit briefly, before the foot-stamping resonance of Ragan<\/strong> at his very best roars back in. \u2018Wake With You\u2019<\/em>, meanwhile, is a slower affair throughout, and the comparatively upbeat fiddle intro to \u2018You and I Alone\u2019<\/em> ends up as something of an unexpected hop back up to speed. There is a running theme as some of the song titles would suggest, and as always Chuck<\/strong>\u2019s music is primarily pumped straight from the heart and aimed directly at those he cares about most. It\u2019s easily transposable to the listener, however, and the end result of Ragan<\/strong>\u2019s labours is an all-purpose series of songs that mould themselves to any situation or mood. \u2018Bedroll Lullaby\u2019<\/em> is a hymn for the road, in the fashion of \u2018Nomad By Fate\u2019<\/em> from \u2018Covering Ground<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n

The phrase \u201cgrand finale\u201d is the best way of describing closing track \u2018For All We Care\u2019<\/em>. The steady swelling of the near five-minute effort leaves it as the perfect end to a magnificent album; a pounding flourish to wrap up the best forty minutes of music you could have hoped for when you found out Chuck Ragan<\/em> was in the studio again. Four albums down now and still never getting old, it has stopped being a question of what Ragan<\/strong> is going to say, more one of how he\u2019s going to say it. But nearly thirty years into a still criminally understated career, there are plenty of words left stocked up in the Californian yet.<\/p>\n

5\/5<\/p>\n

\u2018Till Midnight\u2019 <\/em>by Chuck Ragan<\/strong> is out now on SideOneDummy Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Chuck Ragan links: <\/strong>Facebook<\/a>|Twitter<\/a>|Website<\/a><\/p>\n

Words by Antony Lusmore (@Metacosmica<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chuck Ragan that the world is treated to nowadays is not the same entity that was present when Hot Water Music first came to be. He\u2019d be the first to tell you of his personal evolution, and his last-second retreat from the brink of self-destruction. It\u2019s a good thing too, the loss of Ragan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8181],"tags":[5879,5569,723,10457],"class_list":["post-23823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-post","tag-album-reviews","tag-chuck-ragan","tag-sideonedummy-records","tag-till-midnight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlbum Review: Chuck Ragan - Till Midnight - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Chuck Ragan that the world is treated to nowadays is not the same entity that was present when Hot Water Music first came to be. 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