The Americans – Stand True
Loose Music – 6 May 2022
Based out of L.A., The Americans feature frontman Patrick Ferris, second guitarist Zac Sokolow, bassist Jake Faulkner and Tim Carr on drums and keys. Stand True is their second full-length album and showcases their roots-rock Americana in solid style with songs underpinned by a theme of resilience in the face of loss.
The title track gets the ball rolling, shifting from a folksy opening through to dreamy psychedelic rock and a rousing guitar solo as Ferris declares “I’ll stand true by you / if that’s what you want me to do”. That theme of emotional connection continues into the soulful rock balladeering of Born With A Broken Heart, as the singer calls on his estranged lover to reunite and ease their mutual loneliness (“I was yours not so long ago/And you, all alone, not a soul at your side”) as “Two weak candles in the dark”.
With opening glistening guitar lines that evoke The Byrds, Give Way is a mid-tempo downbeat number about a restless soul (“Kissed your mother and father goodbye/Watched the world through meager eyes/Soon madness spread through everything you own/And the skin that holds your bones”) with the line about giving way to “that nine pound hammer” touching perhaps on depression which will “fix your feet so you cannot walk/Fix your tongue so you cannot talk/Fix your eyes so you cannot see/Fix your heart till you’re lost at sea”.
Taking The Band as a musical touchstone, The Day I Let You Down is another mid-paced gathering power ballad about betrayal, loss and regret and how “chickens come home to roost, and foxes to feast”, the narrator describing how “No one had to tell me it was time to leave/My good name was hitched to a pickup, dragged all over town/I dried my eyes on the side of my sleeve/The day I let you down”, looking to be taken back but knowing the small-town mentality where “Folks make up their minds and cross their arms”.
There are more goodbyes and loss in the twangy swaying Farewell as it sketches funeral reunions (“Stifled tears, haven’t seen her in years/Thank you all for being here/And for your condolences and compassion/Feeble hands on walking canes passing”) and the mixed feelings of relief at the end of suffering and the emptiness of being left alone (“At the bottom of the stairs, I rest my bones alone/And close my eyes, till nothing means a thing/After a while, words don’t mean a thing/And the world is thin and gray as dead skin/To tell the truth, there wasn’t much left/I’m glad it’s finally over with/At least she’s in a better place”).
Guest Of Honor harks back to the more acoustic sound of the debut with its rippling fingerpicking, the lyrics again involving memories of and yearnings to rekindle lost relationships (“Did you believe what you said about love? /Left me landlocked, out of touch/Streets are crowded with happy fools/If you ever come and find me, baby, you’d be right beside me, too”) as he ponders “Was it meant to last? I know better than to ask”.
Star-crossed lovers also underpin the baritone guitar accompanied scuffed shuffle of Romeo which, as the title suggests, reworks Shakespeare’s tragedy (“No earthly force could ever stop me, no king upon his throne/Throwing pebbles at your window was the hand that cast the first stone”) and a family “deaf to peace”, ending in at least a metaphorical swig of that fatal recipe and how “By the time they let us be, in the tragedy of sleep/The burden was theirs to bear”.
In musical contrast, Sore Bones ratchets up the throaty guitar noise with some junkyard country blues to match the anger at a friend’s loose lips in the lyrics (“Leave my name alone/Keep it off your tongue/If you see it in the phonebook/Keep your page-turning going”) where Ferris recalls John Fogerty’s rasp while returning to a more soulful sound, the slow burn What I Would Do (to forget and forgive) has him more channelling Otis Redding.
Orion offers a final burst of energy with driving drums and guitar licks, Ferris dropping his voice as he sings of getting that “Friday evening itch”, confessing “I did wrong, baby, with you in mind/I did wrong, baby, to the ties that bind”, the song fading away over the guitar fury at the end, to lead into the closing country soul sway Here With You which, again in Otis mood, he poignantly speaks to the painful loss of someone through dementia (“Can’t trust your senses/Can’t trust your independence/Can’t trust your memories/From what exactly are you free?.. Can you still remember/The kinds of places we would go?”) with the heartbreaking line “I’m letting go one word at a time”.
Stand True makes a good argument for The Americans to be considered up there with the best of the new standard-bearers.
Stand True is out now: https://smarturl.it/standtrue