Californian singer/songwriter Jay Buchanan retreated to a windowless underground bunker in the Mojave Desert to find inspiration for his first solo album. In isolation, with abandoned gold mines, rivers of sand and just coyotes for company, the Rival Sons frontman found his mojo, sought retribution and wrote a whole album’s worth of material which now comes to fruition in the form of ‘Weapons Of Beauty’.

Produced by long-time collaborator Dave Cobb at his studio in Savannah, Georgia, and featuring a host of Nashville’s finest musicians, ‘Weapons Of Beauty’ is a deeply personal album. The sparse instrumentation, clever use of space and depth of emotion of the melancholy opener ‘Caroline’ sets the scene perfectly. With a heartachingly haunting melody, Jay paints a picture of the emotion of love and loss with a wide-angle lens. This vibe continues on ‘High and Lonesome’ with stunning vocals backed by a gentle beat, slide guitar and piano. The players give just enough to accentuate, not enough to overpower the vocal.

Only on track 3 do things take a sudden upshift. Second single ‘True Black’ is a stunning song, make no mistake, a righteous sermon that embeds itself on first play. The overly familiar gospel-tinged chorus will leave you wondering how you lived your life without it such is the power.

There’s a cinematic feel to the Americana-tinged songs on offer, and the great songwriting and emotive playing will leave the listener enraptured and yearning for more. The stark feeling of isolation and introspection has been magically captured by Cobb, and brings to mind the feel of Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ or Bon Iver’s ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’. Nothing is overplayed, and it gives a very ‘live in the studio’ feel. The folky, almost Celtic ‘Tumbleweeds’ and ‘The Great Divide’ have a more commercial, radio-friendly feel with soaring, powerful vocals and life-affirming lyrics that will make the hairs on the back of your neck rise to attention. Elsewhere, ‘Deep Swimming’ brings to mind The Lumineers and ‘Sway’ is a beautiful love song to his wife with a stunning vocal performance.

Leonard Cohen’s ‘Dance Me To The End Of Love’ fits perfectly with the themes of love, loss and retribution and serves as a precursor to the title track that closes the album. The piano-led ‘Weapons Of Beauty’ is as emotive and dramatic as you could wish for. As you wait on Jay’s every word, at times his voice is on the verge of breaking, such is the power and emotion he pours into this performance.

‘Weapons Of Beauty’ is a deeply personal album, a true confessional told by a true storyteller. It is the sound of a man laying his heart on his sleeve and coming to terms with the burdens of loved ones and the reflections of time in self-imposed exile.

Jay Buchanan has created a cinematic landscape that takes the listener on a mystical journey through his soul, covering a range of emotions, and at times, you truly feel you are encroaching on something that wasn’t meant to be shared. And that is a rare thing for an artist to accomplish.

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Author: Ben Hughes