Rayland Baxter - Imaginary Man

Rayland Baxter
Imaginary Man
2015

The vibe coming out of Nashville and other Southern haunts lately has passed from the classic country acts into a more hybrid singer-songwriter alternative. Rayland Baxter is placed firmly in this camp, never really making his home in any one genre and instead letting them flow through him. You'll find a slight Southern twang on Imaginary Man, but it is never over powering or makes the music lean one way or another. This style used to be a novelty, it was great to hear these songwriters really embracing something old while still making something new. On this record however it does get to be a bit grading. It is the same thing over and over again and while the narrative of each song may change and develop the music stays almost entirely the same. In intros and outros Baxter will include interesting guitar effects or a light piano touch, but then the song will have absolutely nothing to do with those elements.  It just slips back into acoustic guitar, backing band, steel guitar and on in to infinity. It is hard to separate the tracks because each one follows almost the exact same pattern as the other.

There is definitely some lyrical substance here, but it gets lost in pure boredom. There is almost zero surprises on this album, something that it desperately needs. Even going straight acoustic would help immensely in adding a bit of color to the record. Singing about love, the south and old timey shit get tends to get old after awhile and needs something more to elevate it. For some people this may be a decent record, but it just lacks the things that could make it stand out or really pop. There is potential to listen to a few of these tracks and be perfectly content but 11 songs of the exact same style over and over just do not make for something worth while.

4 out of 10