Bridge City Sinners : "In the Age of Doubt"

 This came out last month and I missed it so I am unsure how their PR dept dropped the balls on that one. My first thought about this band's opening track is that it is not as dark as the previous album. This could be played on a street corner during the day in New Orleans, though there is plenty of bluegrass carrying the song, and Libby's vocals are more pop-minded. A boozy street blues swagger helps the sunset a little more on "Midnight to Vice'" The barroom rag-time jazz provides an upbeat saunter to the song. "Heavy" is an ode to getting stoned, that moves similarly to the previous song, though leaning into the bluegrass side of what they do thanks to the fiddling. Things build in a pretty upbeat fashion. 

'Doubt" finds her vocals again going into a little more pop place despite taking on more of an edge at times..There is a moodies to this one, but would not call it dark. Some of the more overt Satanic imagery is also gone. She does go into her screamed vocal on this one, but musically it's not heavy.  There is a heavier syncopation going into "The Crawl",  They go into a protest song of sorts with the more folk-tinged "End of the War". It has a stormier tension that sounds like something you might hear under a cautionary sea shanty.  "Crazy" is pretty upbeat, there is lyrically an inner struggle as she reflects on her mental. There is a mariachi feel to the rambling "Sprears and Blades" 

"Shame" is the first song that feels dark musically. It has a similar tension at times as the Maiden song "Fear of the Dark" which might be the album's best tune. Then there is the bawdy drinking anthem "Sinner's Saloon". The rest of the band joins in on the chorus. There is almost a pop punk tension to "Eye For an Eye" where once again the band joining in with backup vocals is more noticed Libby is singing more straightforwardly on this album with less of the theatrical emoting from previous albums.

 There is more of an Appalachian folk feel, it's more somber in tone though not a ballad. They do what they do well, but the shift in tone, feels like a shift in the band's brand identity, as the more sinister trappings are shed, and the subject matter is more introspective in some ways, more inner demons and not enough outer demons,. though this might just be a personal preference on my end, I will give this album a 9, as they made the album they set out to and this might be a more accessible album to fans of this type of music who do not want the pseudo-"Satanic" or darker imagery, as it is a notice move from that into a more middle of the road place of neutrality in that regard. It's darker than the country music you hear on the radio, but that's it, though the same could be said for the new Amigo the Devil album as well. 

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