All right doggies, saddle up. It's time to slip off those slip-on vans and lace up a pair of shit kickers; the terrain gets a lil' rough up ahead. That's right, y'all better trade in those half inch gauged earrings for a ten gallon hat because we're about to take a bucking ride through the romantic Midwest with Dustin "Dusty" Kensrue. No seriously, stay with me here.
Looking at the cover art for the solo effort from Thrice frontman Dustin Kensrue, I'm reminded of the cold and sterile city theme from their third full-length, The Artist in the Ambulance, making me think the music we convey a similar theme. This is the first curve ball. Most solo albums from members of "punk" bands usually consist of a simple acoustic album where the artist rehashes what they normally write, this time with barre chords. Not good ol' Dusty though, he has something totally different in store for us.
Please Come Home opens with up-tempo guitars and ...harmonica? Here comes the second curve ball. This is a country song, albeit alt-country, but country-fried nonetheless. No... this is a country album. The next two songs also sound like something you'd expect to hear on any of Johnny Cash's American albums; stripped down, simple country tunes, but made to be presented to a younger, chic audience.
Coming to the album's half way point, just about when I'm starting to believe this alt-country style Dusty has going could work, he throws another curve ball. The song "Please Come Home" sounds like it could, with a little more production (add those harmonies and a little more backing instrumentation), easily wind up on Top 40 radio. This song is on par with the work of Howie Day, James Blunt and all those other assholes. Now I'm not saying it's a particularly bad track, it just seems out of place. Perhaps ol' Dusty went through an identity crisis - all puns intended - when writing this album.
Lyrically, the work on Please Come Home is very different than most of Kensrue's work. Gone are a lot of the allusions and other literary devices that are quite common in Thrice's music. Instead, Kensrue opts for themes quite cliche to country music: lost love, alcoholism, drug use, and the tolls of spending life on the road. According to his bio, Kensrue was born and raised in Orange County and has lived there all of his life. This is a real head scratcher to me. Who knew a lifetime of sunny weather right near the beach could produce such somber music?
Just as if the song "Please Come Home" was a bad dream, the rest of album returns to form, channeling the spirits Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, and all the legends of country's romantic age.
