Ray Wylie Hubbard – A. Enlightenment, B…

by Vinh on March 3rd, 2010

Ray Wylie Hubbard – A. Enlightenment, B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C)
January 12th, 2010
Bordello Records
Score: 8.3

One has to wonder just what Ray Wylie Hubbard was subjected to between the release of 2006’s Snake Farm and 2010’s A. Enlightenment, B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C) for a brief glance at his latest album’s title — let alone its contents — suggests he has far more on his mind these days. His gruff and grimy songwriting persists, yet it’s been uprooted from the car shop to the swamp as hoarse grit is now substituted with bluesy drawl. Hubbard still exhibits a firm grasp on first-rate outlaw country though, as evidenced by ‘Loose’ with its fluttery organ and whiskey-soaked chorus as well as the slow-burning scowl of ‘Wasp’s Nest’. What has changed in comparison to past efforts is the brand of grease this record employs — despite the formidable array of instruments on display, A. Enlightenment… is quite slender and rooted in Delta tradition. Indeed, it feels utterly entrenched in the past, not only in the 20th century but in countless before it as an air of twisted mysticism looms over the bulk of this foray. ‘Pots And Pans’ arrives on the scene in emphatic fashion: a stomping mandolin-driven romp, delightfully off-kilter within the context of a country record but perfectly reasonable within these warped walls and serpentine corridors. We’re immersed in that viscous cadence, that positively magnetic aura emanating from those grizzled groans. Roughly one minute remains in its runtime, and the song transfigures. Hubbard claims “I holler and she moans”, and she obliges. The intensity spikes when he decides to join the festivities, pounding on the door with gradually swelling fury, propelling his voice into the sky in hopes of catching hers in this deranged game of cat and mouse. Americana’s spiritual side is then completely unearthed on ‘Whoop And Hollar’, a sweltering gallop adorned with insistent handclaps, that satisfyingly gravelly timbre, and a tide of soulful voices urging the protagonist in his resolve when he speaks of washing his sins away. It’s downright dazzling if cruelly curt, a sordid, zealous incantation to a higher power and, well, to Hubbard himself. Thankfully, the sprawling “endarkenment” is met with a healthy dose of “enlightenment” before the affair ventures too deep into the tenebrous forest. The anthemic ‘Drunken Poet’s Dream’ is among those ensuring the record remains connected to reality, and the track’s title is an accurate encapsulation of Hubbard’s finest LP yet: A. Enlightenment… is both shopworn and surreal, forthright and flighty. Bibulous meditations intertwine with boundless imagination and there’s no line in the sand distinguishing waking life from sweet slumber — perhaps because one isn’t necessary. “It’s one hellacious sound.”

Vinh Cao

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