When The Good Life came out I hardly paid it any mind. Months later when I finally got around to listening to it I wasn’t expecting much from it.

My what a difference an album makes.

Don’t let my tardiness on typing this article mislead you. I was in pursuit of Midnight At The Movies the minute I knew promo copies were available and it has been on heavy rotation ever since Bloodshot sent it to me. With The Good Life I was expecting to hear the son of a legend fumble through an album he only got to make because of his father’s name. On Midnight At The Movies I was just wondering if he could come close to the masterpiece that The Good Life was. Turns out that he may just have surpassed it (if that’s possible).

With Midnight At The Movies, Justin seems more settled in his resolve to forge his own path and more comfortable with his songwriting. On tracks like “Mama’s Eyes,” Justin shows no hesitation about exposing himself to the listener, warts and all. When you couple that the ragtime hop of the track “Walk Out,” you start to uncover the true strength of this album. It’s somber, introspective and tender at its core, while still managing to maintain a country swagger.

The variety of styles on the album really help to cover its greatest weakness, its length.  Clocking in at a mere 33 minutes, it seems like the album is over almost as soon as it starts, but as Bobby Womack once said, “Leave them wanting more and you know they’ll call you back.” Chalking in at 12 tracks of all killer, no filler, you’ll definitely find yourself calling Midnight At The Movies back quite a bit this year. I’ll probably be calling it up come year end “best of” list making time, and for the time being I’ll call it Essential Listening.

Justin Townes Earle – Mama’s Eyes
Justin Townes Earle – Walk Out
Justin Townes Earle – Midnight At The Movies

Justin Townes Earle on myspace, Buy Midnight At The Movies

Note from Autopsy: Unless Trevor decides to drop some more knowledge on y’all about the tech workings of ninebullets there will be no posts tomorrow. See y’all on Wed.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from Justin’s Bloodshot debut, The Good Life, but it wasn’t much. I don’t know why, either. I had never heard anything from his debut EP, Yuma, but when it came down to it I was only giving The Good Life a courtesy listen. Regardless of what I was expecting, what I got was one of the best albums so far this year.

Son of Steve Earle…Townes Van Zandt…blah blah…the names and shadows have been well documented on other blogs, so I’m just gonna talk about the music.

From the more Hank at the Opry hobo song and title track “The Good Life” to the standout Civil War story song “Lone Pine Hill”, Earle shows a songwriting command and reverence of the past far beyond his mere 25 years. The album isn’t a mere case of mimicry, though. Justin manages to play off the influences of country greats and still sound fresh.

While this might be the worst case of blasphemy in the history of Americana music bloggery, it’s the truth: In my opinion, The Good Life is better than anything his daddy has ever put together. Allow me to preface that, though. I’ve never really been fanatical about Steve Earle. I like some of his songs well enough, but I’ve never liked enough of them enough to bother very much. On the other hand, another effort like this from Justin and I’ll be nearing the fanatical stage.

The Good Life; it’s essential listening and bound for many a year end top 10 list.