AMERICAN AQUARIUM : THE FEAR OF STANDING STILL

AMERICAN AQUARIUM : THE FEAR OF STANDING STILL

Crier
Messy As A Magnolia
Cherokee Purples
The Getting Home
Southern Roots
The Curse Of Growing Old
The Fear Of Standing Still
Piece By Piece
Babies Having Babies
Head Down, Feet Moving

Label : Losing Side Records

Release Date : July 26, 2024

Length : 39:57

Review (Indy Week) : The Fear of Standing Still, the 10th album from unstoppable country-rock road warriors American Aquarium, might be the Raleigh band’s best. Without question, it’s the best place to start to get acquainted with them. Following consecutive high-water marks in 2020’s searingly socially conscious Lamentations and 2022’s thoughtfully stripped-back Chicamacomico, this 10th album consolidates the strengths of those efforts. Captured with warm clarity by Lamentations producer Shooter Jennings, it also documents the group’s current lineup—rebooted in 2019 featuring guitarist Shane Boeker, pedal steel player Neil Jones, keyboardist Rhett Huffman, drummer Ryan Van Fleet, and bassist Alden Hedges—at the height of their considerable powers. The result is a record that rollicks and ruminates with equal profundity, cementing gravelly-voiced songwriter BJ Barham’s band among the upper echelon of modern Americana acts. The album has issue-driven songs to rival Lamentations. Featuring airy harmonies from singer-songwriter Katie Pruitt and filling out patiently striding acoustic guitar and piano with anxious wisps of electric guitar and pedal steel, “Southern Roots” eyes good ole boys who still refuse to take down their losing flag, wisely observing, “If there’s one thing I’ve found / You can’t change the way you sound / You can only change the words that you choose.” And the record processes grief and loneliness with equal sensitivity to Chicamacomico. Singing over keys, pedal steel, and guitars that wind like competing breezes tossing fall leaves, Barham recalls awakening to mortality through watching his family, particularly his father, whom he says he only saw cry when Dale Earnhardt died—“Raise hell / Praise Dale / Death’s coming for us all,” the singer somberly declares. But The Fear of Standing Still distinguishes itself best when it imbues revving rockers with meaningful nuance. “Crier” opens the album with punk-spiked E Street thunder, stepping past an obvious skewering of outmoded masculinity (boys have feelings, too, it turns out) to revel in the power of making yourself heard—“If you are here, then you’ve been hurt, and you deserve / To be a crier!” Shimmying and shaking with scuzzy abandon worthy of being exiled on Main Street, closer “Head Down, Feet Moving” celebrates the single-minded, somewhat insane drive that keeps a rock band going nearly two decades down the line—“I’ll keep screaming out my secrets if you swear to sing along!” Barham promises, offering an olive branch to the listeners lost along the way: “I appreciate you listening as long as you did!” Some listeners will justifiably prefer the depth and focus of American Aquarium’s previous two albums. And while The Fear of Standing Still can feel a bit scattershot by comparison, it shows the impressive breadth of the band’s capabilities.

Review (Muziekkrant OOR) : American Aquarium dient als vehikel voor de autobiografische songschrijverij van BJ Barham uit het conservatieve North Carolina. De dominante en praatgrage frontman is de enige constante factor in de ruigrafelige alt.countryband, de andere musici komen en gaan. Over een periode van bijna twintig jaar heeft hij meer dan dertig groepsleden versleten. Uit de titel van dit tiende studioalbum blijkt dat Barham lijdt aan de angst voor stilstand. Die angst is gegrond, want The Fear Of Standing Still klinkt als een zoveelste herhaling van zetten. In arenarockers met meeblèrrefrein en introspectieve, tamelijk prekerige ballads berijdt hij zijn bekende stokpaardjes: het verslavingsverleden dat hij met zich meetorst (hou daar alsjeblieft eens over op, we weten het onderhand wel), de onvoorwaardelijke liefde die zijn vrouw hem geeft, het wankele evenwicht tussen thuis zijn en touren en de ambivalentie jegens zijn zuidelijke identiteit. ‘And let me say this to you: if along the way I lose you, I appreciate you listenin’ as long as you did’, luidt de laatste zin van de scheurende en schreeuwerige afsluiter Head Down, Feet Moving. Voor ons is het nu even genoeg geweest. Houdoe en bedankt.

Review (Twangville) : By the time most bands have released a dozen or so albums, they are past their prime. They may still be releasing solid material, but the zenith is clearly in the rear view. Thankfully American Aquarium isn’t most bands. BJ Barham’s band is scarred, and road worn for sure. Lineups have changed and morphed over the years. However, this lineup has been together now for around seven years. Instead of heading to the downside of the hill, Barham and company seem to be hitting their stride. Their new album “Fear of Standing Still” certainly showcases the best of everything that is American Aquarium. This is the second time Barham has teamed up with Shooter Jennings as producer. (The previous time was 2020’s “Lamentations”.) Based on these two projects, it is a combination that contains a magic formula. The band brings back the riffs after their stripped down 2022 release “Chicamacomico”. The album was recorded at the Sunset Sound studio in Los Angeles. It is always best to judge an album as a full body of work. Nevertheless, the way an album starts often sets the tone for the whole project. Few albums come out of the gate with a one, two, three punch better than “Fear of Standing Still”. Things start with a bang on “Crier”, a song that throws the notion that boys don’t cry on its head. In a Rock N’ Roll fury, Barham announces he is a crier and that is okay. Second to the post is what is sure to become a new fan favorite. “Messy as a Magnolia” is a rocker that will be a great sing along crowd pleaser. Next is “Cherokee Purples”, which is as Southern as a song can get. It is a song about Duke’s mayonnaise, heirloom tomatoes and memories. If you know you know. If you don’t, then come down South and we will show you. (There is no substitute for Duke’s by the way.) In addition to these three songs, “The Getting Home,” and the closing “Head Down, Feet Moving” are two other songs that are destined to be crowd pleasers. The lynchpin of the album is “Southern Roots”. When I listened to the song the first time, I was crier, and proud of it. On this song Barham returns to a topic he faced head on in “Better South” from “Lamentations”. He addresses the complicated history of the South. The easy take (and frankly the usual lazy take) is to just bash the South and Southerners. However, Barham goes beyond this. He both acknowledges the darkness in Southern history and even its current landscape, while giving hope for a better future. “You can’t change the way you sound. You can only change the words that you choose.” Barham sings, “So I’m putting in the work. I’m digging in the dirt. I’m replanting my Southern roots.” Barham chooses to be part of the solution and provides positive direction and hope for the future of the place he is from. He clearly loves his home and chooses to move forward and make it better. We should all learn from voices like Barham and Patterson Hood from Drive-By Truckers when they address what Hood calls “The Duality of the Southern Thing”. The song was co-written with Katie Pruitt who also contributes vocals. I have never been good at ranking albums or songs, for that matter. I won’t try to do it with “Fear of Standing Still”, but I feel confident it is close to the top of the very expansive American Aquarium catalogue.