Shooter Jennings' sechstes Album ist ein kleines Genre übergreifendes Kunstwerk, "a genre busting piece of art", wie es ein amerikanischer Fan ausdrückt. Recht hat er. Waylon Jennings' und Jessi Colter's einziger Sohn präsentiert sich abwechslungsreicher als je zuvor. Roots, Americana, Country, Outlaw Music, Southern, Rock stehen im Vordergrund, aber auch Blues, Jazz und Psychedelic hinterlassen ihre Spuren auf "The other life", das dennoch ein nie den roten Faden verlierendes Werk wie aus einem Guß ist. Das Songmaterial ist klasse, enthält vielleicht sogar einige der besten Songs, die Jennigs bis heute geschrieben hat. Baumstark beispielsweise das bissige "Outlaw me", ein grandioser Outlaw Countryrocker, mit dem Jennings deutlich seinen Unmut über einige der "aufgeblasenen" jungen Countrystars Nashville's zum Ausdruck bringt, die seiner Meinung nach alle glauben, sie seien richtig "country" und "outlaw", aber fern dieser Lebenseinstellung agieren. Wie gesagt, das komplette Material ist vorzüglich. Shooter Jennings in ganz großer Form!
Ein Auszug aus einem U.S.-Review:
Six of these tracks were cut at the earlier album's sessions, including the firebrand "Outlaw You," the tune for the music video that was a musical middle finger to Eric Church and Jason Aldean (which has curiously gone unanswered). The Other Life is wilder, darker, rowdier, and more diverse than its predecessor. The brooding opener "Flying Saucer Song," a piano- and effects-driven number, is eventually transformed into a spaced-out, gospel-tinged song about space (outer and inner). It throws the listener for a loop, but resolutely belongs -- but only as the first cut. The set contains gorgeous country ballads such as "Wild and Lonesome" (with Patty Griffin on backing vocals) and the title track. There are fine, midtempo honky tonkers including "The Outsider" and the pedal steel- and banjo-saturated "The Low Road." There are steamy, electric, country-kissed, blues-rock numbers such as "A Hard Lesson to Learn," and the rock & roll boogie of "Mama It's Just My Medicine." There's a shuffling, snarling, futuristic, midtempo Americana tune in "15 Million Light Years Away," with reverb-drenched production that features a weathered (not weary) Jim Dandy -- from Black Oak Arkansas -- as a duet partner. The first single is a wooly, rowdy reading of Steve Young's "White Trash Song," with Scott H. Biram guesting. Young, an underground legend, authored the outlaw anthem "Lonesome Orn'ry & Mean," a signature tune for Jennings' dad. This reading of the 1971 tune contains skittering rockabilly drums, pumping upright bass, wailing pedal steel, hyper-acoustic guitars, piercing fiddles, and an additional verse. (Neither Jennings nor Biram took a co-write for it; something unheard of in Music City.) It underscores the iconoclastic legacy bequeathed to Jennings by his free-spirited parents. But more than that, the song is a celebration of all that doesn't fit -- anywhere. It's an apt self-referential metaphor. Album-closer "The Gunslinger" is Jennings' own anthem, drenched in country, rock, R&B, and even jazz, courtesy of the improvisational interplay between Jonathan Stewart's tenor saxophone, guitars, keyboards, and the rhythm section. (Thom Jurek, Rovi)
Das jomplette Tracklisting:
1. Flying Saucer Song - 3:37
2. A Hard Lesson to Learn - 3:34
3. The White Trash Song (feat. Scott H. Biram) - 5:08
4. Wild & Lonesome (feat. Patty Griffin) - 4:07
5. Outlaw You - 4:19
6. The Other Life - 3:42
7. The Low Road - 3:04
8. Mama, It’s Just My Medicine - 5:07
9. The Outsider - 3:10
10. 15 Million Light Years Away (feat. Jim Dandy) - 5:20
11. The Gunslinger - 6:30
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