Its taken me ages to review this because the record took some time to unravel and the more it did, the more I wanted to discover before writing about it.
J Tillman has been a singer/songwriter long before he was Fleet Foxes drummer and harmony singer. I remember him touring with Denison Witmer a few years ago and I admit I did have him down as just another acoustic guitar playing singer songwriter. However, whereas Witmer's last album fell back on easy melodies and cliched lyrics, Tillman's fifth has better songs and takes a few risks.
The first half of this album does concentrate on hushed acoustic ballads, sung and played by Tillman mainly on his own. The best of these, the mournful 'No Occasion' and the funny/sad 'James Blues' are superb examples of the type of lo-fi acoustic recordings that the likes of Bonnie Prince Billy and Jason Molina produce. In particular Tillman sounds like 'Didn't It Rain'-era Molina...sparse instrumentation and a warm, strong voice. Late night, lonely, tender ballads of the highest quality.
Just when you think you've got the record figured out though, Tillman changes things round on side B with some full band recordings that offer a different feel. 'Steel On Steel', is a tragic story but with a catchy melody and hookline, 'New Imperial Grand Blues' is a stomping rocker with booming drums and best of all, 'Master's House' is confident, laid-back blues which Tillman plays and sings beautifully. It is gloriously unhurried and sparse.
Tillman has showed that he is capable of turning his hand to a number of styles and this is a superb album. The core of the album, certainly, are the hushed, acoustic ballads but he sounds like he could well make a similar move to Jason Molina and make a more expansive album like 'Magnolia Electric Co' next. How he will find time to do all this whilst continuing his day job of being in one of the best new band's in the world is anyone's guess!
7.6
['Vacilando Territory Blues' is out now on CD/LP on Bella Union]
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