Back in about 1989, you couldn’t move for the “longform” video. Essentially a way for bands to put their videos out as a collection, they usually had some interviews and hi-jinks assembled around. I loved them. I used to watch them night after night when I got home from school.
One of my favourites was called “Sight For Sore Ears” by Poison. On that one Brett Michaels spoke about what music meant to him. It was, he said, about escape. You’d put on an album you loved listening to and transport yourself away.
I was thinking about that on the way to work this morning. I was tired. I’d been to a gig the night before, and I’d got a day ahead that I just I needed to get through. Alexander Ludwig’s debut full length record was on the car stereo. “Ain’t nobody watching the clock” he sang on the aptly titled “Life I Want” and it hit me: “it” being the reason why I love these records so much, why there’s so much of this country on the site. Ready? Because these tales of small towns are escape. Maybe they exist, maybe they don’t, but it doesn’t matter. They allow you – and maybe the artist – to dream.
Canadian Ludwig made his name in Hollywood in “Vikings” and the likes. But his heart is on Highway 99, the road he travelled with family to the cabin at weekends, and there’s such a warmth in these songs that you can’t resist you were there too.
Five of them were on his self-titled EP last year. The rest follow the formula. Take “Rough Around The Edges”, its so proud of the red dirt it belongs on. There’s gravel roads (of course there is!) and there’s collars of blue.
Oh and there’s a chorus to die for. So there is everywhere you look here. “201 Melrose Avenue” is the ballad that blokes everywhere will cling to when it’s her fault anyway, and there’s a sort of southern rock chug on “That Kinda Love” to set that apart.
Ludwig wrote that one, as he did the clever pop of “Back”, and if most of the others are written by some of the best around then who cares? This is about feeling, about vibe, about familiarity. “If You Don’t I Do” is an example of that. It could be anyone from Jason Aldean to Brett Eldredge to any number of others and it doesn’t matter. Try and not join in by the second go round. Go on. Dare you.
“Summer Crazy” (one of the five that you might have heard before) is still mighty, while one of the new ones, “After You” adds another of the slow moments. Thank goodness there’s always a girl to break your heart and a bar to drink dry. That’s how “Can’t Outrun You” gets made.
“Love Today” wasn’t how I was feeling at 8.45 this morning, but it’s like a tidal wave of Stones flavoured cheeriness. It’ll get you in the end.
“Let Me Be Your Whiskey” is more old school country than most, while “Faded On Me” is so arena rock it could be Bryan Adams, a fact that “Like She Wanted To” recognises and balances out. Even better, though, it gives a happy ending. This record needed one. Escapism only works if it has got one.
“Highway 99” might not be a breakneck ride on the fast lane, but here’s what it is: superbly done modern country that did what it set out to, and my goodness it’s sweeter than Coca-Cola and goes down twice as easy. And we all need that sometimes.
Rating 8/10
