The Jayhawks - XOXO

 

For Album Seven of the October Review A Day escapade, I hand over to Ian Rushbury to tell you all about the latest Jayhawks' album. 

There can’t be many bands that have never put a foot wrong. Even your favourite band – whoever they are – have phoned something in. Or gone off on a ludicrous tangent. Or sacked the band member who was holding everything together. Sooner or later, even the great and the good will trip over themselves and fall flat on their face into a double album’s worth of self-indulgent nonsense. 

That is, of course, unless your favourite band is The Jayhawks – the Teflon coated, diamond studded, 50 year guaranteed, satisfaction or your money back, overlords of Americana. They’ve done eleven albums since 1986, ranging in quality from great to really, really great. Their latest album, XOXO is really really great. No surprise there.

XOXO sees the Jayhawks working even closer than ever before. Previously, Gary Louris and former member Mark Olsen monopolised the songwriting.  But on this record, all four ‘hawks contribute songs and take a turn to sing them. What could have been a scattershot, hot mess has turned into a strong, purposeful statement of solidarity. 

Karen Grotberg has long been the band’s secret weapon and she excels on XOXO. Her plaintive ballad “Ruby”, driven by Eric Heywood’s pedal steel is magnificent. Grotberg’s righteous piano and heartfelt vocal delivery elevate the song into a modern country classic. Where’s Bobby Gentry when we really need her? “Homecoming” with its loping, breezy melody and short, incisive guitar solo would make a radio friendly single, if the lyrics weren’t so bleak. “Short-sighted men / with eyes on their pockets / the next generation is watching the clock wind down” sing the band. I wonder if that’s about anyone in particular?

That unnamed person crops up again in “Illuminate.” “Every time you led the way / Shaking hands and taking names / Looking for someone to blame.” They may be aiming at an easy target, but they’re doing it beautifully and have managed to combine The Fleet Foxes with The Flying Burrito Brothers. You can’t see the join. And on the subject of late sixties country-rock, “Bitter Pill” is a beautiful example of the sound The Byrds were reaching for on Sweetheart Of The Rodeo. It’s elegant, effortless and is sad and happy all at once. 

But it’s not just a  Stetson-totin’, pedal steel pickin’, yeehaw-fest – it rocks too. “Dogtown Days” and “Society Pages” rattle along at a brisk pace with just the right amount of electric guitar to give them an edge. “Dogtown Days” has a very cool, Teenage Fanclub feel, which is always most welcome. However, as a bleeding-heart liberal, the lyrics of “Society Pages” trouble me slightly. I’m sure it’s a pointed barb at scenesters and whatever hipsters are called nowadays. But the line “Are you here / For all the young queers” could be pretty damaging if it’s picked up by people who love getting the wrong end of the stick. That’s the only thing I can find fault with on this record…

The fact that the Jayhawks are still making peerless music thirty-five years (that’s THIRTY-FIVE YEARS!) into their career is as commendable as it is miraculous. The fact that XOXO might be their best album is almost unbelievable. Believe it. The burning question is: how great would their other albums have been if they’d started this communal writing thing earlier in their career? God damn. 

You can listen to and buy the album here and everywhere. You can find out more about |The Jayhawks here.

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