2020 Has Sucked, but there has been some amazing music...

Jason Isbel's "Reunion" stands out to me and the critics agree. From Denning at Allmusic:

Some albums are made to reflect the times in which they were made, and others somehow mesh with the zeitgeist without ever planning on it. America was a nation knee-deep in uncertainty when Jason Isbell wrote and recorded 2020's Reunions, but he had no idea that the album would be released as a pandemic was sweeping the world. Thanks to COVID-19, the record emerged just as an America in quarantine was united in anxiety and frustration while at the same time struggling with a growing divide about what to do and who to believe. Reunions doesn't deal with any of these issues (and really couldn't have, given the timeline of its creation), but from the edgy fear that fuels the opening cut, "What've I Done to Help," this album is steeped in tales of folks whose lives feel unrooted, not knowing just where fate is taking them and wondering which turn they should take. The kid whose world is being turned upside down by divorce in "Dreamsicle," the friend whose choices had grim consequences in "Only Children," the broken trust of "Running With Our Eyes Closed," and "Overseas," in which the line "My love won't change a thing" feels less like assurance than resignation, all feel all too relevant at a time when just going to the grocery requires determination and a leap of faith. Even the album's most anthemic numbers seem remarkably prescient -- "Be Afraid" ("but do it anyway") at once calls for courage and respects its sometimes short supply, and "It Gets Easier" ("but it never gets easy") may be about addiction and recovery, but it can just as easily reflect the obstacles of living in a world that has very suddenly changed with no guarantee we'll ever return to what we knew.



This song, one of his many father/daughter themes, grabs me hard, both thinking about my own daughters and also my son-in-law with his new daughter walking the same walk. Listen close: