Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2010 > February > 15 > Entry
“True Love Cast Out All Evil” - a sequel of the spirit
This is not a review of the upcoming Roky Erickson collaboration with Okkervil River on “True Love Cast Out All Evil,” which comes out April 20 on Anti Records. This is a series of impressions on first listen to Erickson’s first new album in 14 years.
If you’re a fan of Roky’s and know about his knock-out/ drag-out fight with demons both real and imagined, you will feel something strange and beautiful come over you on the first song “Devotional Number One,” which starts off as a scratchy field recording. “Jesus met Moses/ Drinking from a well/ Moses had thought he was Jesus/ Moses just got back from hell,” Erickson sings, then up comes a symphony of arms around him, some warmth in the confusion.
A tribute album this ain’t. Or maybe it’s the best kind.
Can’t tell you how many times a band has described a new album as taking a snapshot of where their heads were during the making, but it’s a lot of times. What producer Will Sheff set out to do was create a sonic painting. The shading is respectful of the stronger details in this portrait of resiliency and therefore becomes essential in support.
This is the sound-only movie of Roky emerging from a dark and lonely and terrifying place. It’s the sequel to Keven McAlester’s amazing Rokumentary “You’re Gonna Miss Me” with “Goodbye Sweet Dreams,” used so effectively as a coda in the film, becoming something else.
These twelve songs are not new, but they’re largely unreleased and obscure. They were written by Erickson in state hospitals and in his mother’s living room and in Roky’s mind when he had no idea where he was. There are no creatures with atom brains here, but songs of graceful simplicity. “Forever” will give you chills.
“True Love” has an overall spookiness, with creaky openings and mysterious hums, but it also sways with Erickson’s best Buddy Holly tendencies on songs like “Bring Back the Past.” No Roky record has ever had this much piano, this much sweeping reflection, but credit the Okkervil crew for checking all heavy-handedness at the door.
The album hinges on a couple of songs that sound like two different sides of the same coin: the vulnerable “Please, Judge,” with its mind at the mercy of the Man, and the simmering rage of “John Lawman,” whose entire lyrics consist of three lines repeating “I kill people all day long/ I sing my song/ Because I’m John Lawman.” This is not a review. I didn’t take notes when I listened. I sat in my car outside my home, not wanting to break the spell by going inside and playing it on a stereo that would make it sound different.
“One is one/ another is another/ Your father is your father/ Your mother is your mother,” Erickson sings on “Think Of As One,” a song that sounds like it was rejected by Tommy Hall of the Elevators as too poppy. On the page those words don’t mean much, but with the band’s mesmerizing tones becoming a brilliant translator, you can hear a troubled mind trying to make sense and find fulfillment.
Spoiler alert!
This record might make you feel ready for anything, even love.
Comments
Austinites love to be heard, and we're giving you a bullhorn. We just ask that you keep things civil. Leave out the personal attacks. Do not use profanity, ethnic or racial slurs, or take shots at anyone's sexual orientation or religion. If you can't be nice, we reserve the right to remove your material and ban users who violate our Visitor's agreement. Click here to report comment abuse.
By Ted Pestorius
March 16, 2010 4:21 PM | Link to this
Disclaimer: I’m related to one of the band members.
I enrolled at UT Fall ‘81 and have been intrigued by the Roky mystique since first discovery. When this started to come together last year I was cautiously optimistic. Could Roky pull it off? Could he still sing? Would his songs fit with the cinematic vision and breadth that we have come to expect from Okkervil River?
I now work for the CDC and am deployed to Western Africa for 3 months. Knowing that I would miss the release I was provided an advanced conditional listen (my ears only), This CD is tremendous. It suceeds on every level. I can’t write about music as eloquently as Michael (who’s “Don’t Get Me Talking” Chronile column was a must read back in the day), but this CD is as good as anything I’ve heard in the past couple of years. As the last strains of Sweet Honey Pie die out my desire is always to hit replay. My only hope now (besides air conditioning) is to hear The Singing Grandfather in concert. They nailed it, and Roky sounds tremendous.