Vic Chesnutt - "You Are Never Alone".
Vic Chesnutt - "Glossolalia".

The new Vic Chesnutt album, North Star Deserter, was recorded in Montreal with the entire lineup of Silver Mt. Zion, Guy Picciotto from Fugazi, and various members of Franki Sparo, Hangedup, and Godspeed!. It was a brilliant idea, - (let's please get Leonard Cohen to collaborate with the same gang,) - but what's happier still is the way the idea has translated into reality. Chesnutt's lyrics have never sounded better than in this bed of straw and rust, with the Hotel 2 Tango's attic glow and the occasional squeal of Mile End noise. A singer-songwriter of eminence and poetry playing with musicians of bristle and shriek - fingers and throats in search of the sublime.

Vic Chesnutt - "You Are Never Alone" is the record's most easygoing track. "It's okay," Chesnutt sings again and again. It's okay if you take this drug or that drug, or if you take a condom; it's okay. Keep on keeping on. And before you have the chance to wonder if he's beying sincere, if he really so deeply wishes you well, there's a chorus from all sides. You are never alone, they sing, with smiles on faces and arms wide. A reassurance that makes it possible to imagine putting down the cannister of pills, even with the knowledge that it would be okay if you took them.

Vic Chesnutt - "Glossolalia" is a different creature; one with claws, fangs, slick black organs. Strings wait with predator patience, settling into their footing. When finally they rise and really emerge, when everyone's singing and the contrabass is prowling, you feel all the rightness of a longed-for terror. The satisfaction of standing on balled feet by the window when the lightning strikes.

[Pre-order the singular North Star Deserter on gatefold CD or 2x180g vinyl. Highly recommended.]

[Photo by Jessica Williams]