After a ten year break, The Baptist Generals have returned with an album that brazenly forms it own emotional language. The lyrically-loaded Denton, Texas folk rockers have once again committed the Jeff Mangum-lilt of frontman Chris Flemmon's voice to record as he explores the "pitiful glassy hearts" of the lovesick and lonesome. Jackleg Devotional to the Heart is forcefully directed toward that organ made misdirected symbol and feeling drips from every ragged note.
The devotional opens with an electro-folk breakdown of "When the Saints Go Marching In," titled "Machine En Prolepsis," and perhaps the remainder of the album may be viewed as a prolapsing machine, the sound of an organized mind spinning out entropically. "Dog That Bit You" rattles and rambles in follow-up, sliding into the semi-sorrowful strains of "Clitorpus Christi," a lament about loud trollops and stolen soap.
Such surreal angst, however, tilts toward an earnestness that needs no clownish dressing, a beautiful desperation that lifts "Turnovers and Overpasses" above its companion tracks. Much of the album is uneven, if not frequently interesting and eager. "3-Bromides" contains an arresting blend of preached science and mysticism while "Snow on the FM" presents cloying "la-las" over lackluster music. Tracks open with blasts of hyper-experimental decay, string sections, and full orchestras. If there is consistency it lies in Flemmon's vulnerable vocals and wandering words.
The epic lift of "My O My" brings Jackleg Devotional to a swelling height, leaving the remainder of the album as denouement. It ends in an overture that charmingly reprises an earlier track, "Oblivion," to superior effect. Though The Baptist Generals' musical ability may not always match their ambition, they nonetheless have more than enough wild ideas to sustain them as they re-invent the way we talk (and sing) about emotion.
Grade: B
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