Amigo the Devil : "Born Against"

After "Everything's Fine" the bar is pretty high going into this one. It opens with a bigger slicker production sound which along with strings and a more ballad like mood is the biggest change. The first song shifts into more of a rock dynamic when it builds. His voice has really improved here as well. There is a drunken streets of New Orleans feel to "Quiet as a Rat". Lyrically it is darker than the more reflective tone of the first song. Darker is what I want from him when it comes to the lyrics. Questioning religion is always a good topic. He does it in a very grounded manner. I really like the tension to " Murder at the Bingo Hall". He throws in a lot of new sounds on this one. The are more blatant lyrically moments that would make this fall into being murder ballads. The fact that is is grim in his tongue and cheek manner works for me really well. 

There is more of a country tone to the short ditty "Better Ways to Fry a Fish" . "Different Anymore" feels the most like it could be off the previous album . I like the slicker production. There might be some who wish it was just Danny and a banjo. The last album was more well produced than your average murder folk album.  It is clear he retains his touch when it comes to song writing. Perhaps these are told more like stories and less hooky, but whatever he is doing here works. Lyrically there are still a great deal of zingers on here.  "24k Casket" feels like it echoes the same sentiment as  "Everyone Dies" . Lyrically it returns   to the same topic. His delivery is also fairly similar. 

"Shadow" also recalls the feel of his earlier work, less so than the previous song. It has more drunken swagger to it . It is also one of this album's sonically darker songs. The album closes with "Letter From Deathrow" . Is a bitter sweet banjo ballad. It works for what he does . It is almost not fair to weigh it against "Everything is Fine" , if forced to rank them I would put this one behind "Everything's Fine" , but it is still excellent in it's own right and will likely go down as one of the year's best albums. When it comes to country and folk it really has little that comes close as competition. If it takes the number one spot depends on if Tyler Childers puts out a new one, and if Childres can deliver like last time. So I am giving this one a 10.