DWIGHT YOAKAM
Blame the Vain
New West Records
· Self-produced album by the (honourary) Dr. Yoakam is his 18th release in 21 years and his first on the New West label.
"There’s a lot of reckless joy in this album," Dwight Yoakam says in a quote on his website. Yep, well, as my hoss-whisperer says, "Buuuull-shee-it."
There’s not a reckless moment here, not from the wall-of-sound hit-radio production to the heart-jerk sap-covered strings reminiscent of Glenn Campbell’s "Galveston" on the final track, "The Last Heart in Line." With Yoakam tangled up in his own reins in the production department, reckless just isn’t an option – nothing is allowed to run wild.
Not that that’s a completely bad thing. The album is both smooth and gritty – albeit mild doses of tiny grit – and embraces an interesting variation of sounds, so the music enjoys several fine moments. But some of Yoakam’s lines, like "I wanna love again/ feel young again/ the way we did when it was true," are so direct and nostalgically universal that they deserve a softer place to land. The overall feeling is that of a man trying to marry music with emotion, but showing up late for the ceremony.
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