Impasse by Richard Buckner (Review)

I think this record may have suffered from too high of expectations on my part. I’ve been a huge fan of Buckner’s whiskey-soaked voice and tales of life gone wrong for years, have everything the man’s ever released, and have seen him live several times. Subsequently any new release is eagerly awaited. Impasse isn’t a bad record by any means, but I just find myself wanting to like it more than I do.

Part of it’s a production issue, but mostly these songs just don’t connect with me on the same level his earlier work did. There are tracks on Bloomed and Since that are just devastating, but nothing here particularly provokes much of a response. Maybe getting married just took off some of Buckner’s edge. Who knows?

Richard Buckner has always been a hard man to categorize. Alt-country before the genre even existed, he soon drew moodier and more experimental elements into his work, as a quick scan of his resume will show. Howe Gelb has played on his records, as have the guys from Calexico and most of Gastr Del Sol. He’s also got a musical adaptation of a poem cycle of fictional epitaphs to his credit.

Impasse is his first album of original material since 1998’s stellar Since and he seems to be drawing from the same sonic palette, though this time he plays everything but the drums himself and self-produces. Again, it’s hard to say just what the missing element is here, but the music just isn’t as gripping as it once was. Maybe it’s simply that Impasse is so similar to Since without ever quite reaching the same level of excellence, and thus suffers by comparison.

Impasse is a solid, workmanlike record. There’s nothing really negative to say about it, but if you’re new to Buckner’s work, start someplace else. You won’t go too far wrong, no matter which of the other records you pick up. This one’s good, but non-essential.

Written by Chris Brown.