Singer/songwriter Willy Vlautin sings a catalogue of stories about wretched lives and bad decisions. Initially he comes on like a scuzzy drunk bending your ear in a bar... but as the night wears on you find that that drunk has gotten very attractive and you’re just about ready to make a bad decision yourself.
Vlautin’s cracked voice delivers songs about blue collar losers, and the substance of these stories is very familiar – ordinary guy feels restless and trapped, gets drunk, does something stupid, and drives of somewhere else to get more drunk. There’s a lot of drinking and a lot of driving (the Road Safety Authority would not approve) and a lot of movement and motion (as opposed to metaphors and flowery description). You’ve heard versions of these stories before, but there’s a strange truth and blunt elegance to how Vlautin phrases and sings them.
He’s helped by the perfect alt-country house band. Most barflies don’t have the benefit of beautiful slide guitar and a steady country rock backbeat, and there are two gorgeous instrumentals (‘Kid from Belmont St End up on Colfax Ave, Denver, Co.’ And ‘$43.50’), which just underpin how well judged the musicianship is.
The eight songs on $87 And A Guilty Conscience are technically the cast-offs from the session that created the 13 Cities album (released early this year) but these are very fine cast-offs. In fact, by the end of the album you’re ready to get into the car with Vlautin to go and raise ill-advised hell. Lovely gritty stuff.