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| Popmatters |
 Sometimes singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne tells her stories in clear and precise terms so that one clearly understands the characters, setting, and situation. Other times, she writes vague and symbolic tales where what gets disclosed seems to have a supernatural connection. The superficial features hide something deeper. That’s what the word “revelation” from the title song, “Revelation Road”, is about. During the song, Lynne gets caught up in a rapture and using various inflections starts chanting the word “Revelation” more than two dozen times. The Buddhist-like trance effect of the mantra becomes transformed as Lynne’s Southern accent makes the sound of the words resemble “Rebel Nation” more than anything religious. That makes a sort of sense, as Lynne’s roots are located in the same white Southern Christian gospel as redneck rock. The strategy of repetition occurs again in “Woebeggone”, as Lynne repeats the title word over and over until it becomes, “Whoa, Be Gone”, something much more final and funereal. The songs’ contents are never really clear, although the melancholy referred to in the tune’s name gets conveyed in the crying tone of the singer. The mood takes on primary importance. Expressing emotion reveals emotion. These songs have a languid and spiritual appeal, like that of the mythic Southland, where the poor live in more natural surroundings than the rest of us are and in greater touch with their authentic feelings. Sure, it is bull, but it is not supposed to be realistic, but rather something unexplainable with mere words. For some, this is what separates art from life — which is why the results are manifested in songs. However, the best songs are the ones where Lynne provides the specifics and lets listeners understand the situation. For example, the first verse of “I’ll Hold Your Head” is pure poetry: “Four bald tires on an old Impala / 70 degrees south Alabama / Mama needs money, and we’re late for school / Pickin’ out the parts on a Bob Wills tune / Got a scrambled egg sandwich and a Folger’s can / Daddy says he’ll never work the man”. No ideas but in things here as we learn about a child’s life from a child’s point of view. The story grows into one the profound connection between two sisters who live in a family with a violent father....full text |
| Guardian |
| Virginia-born Lynne seems unable to settle on a place for her considerable vocal gifts. Since escaping Nashville's production line a decade back, she's tried on the roles of Americana songwriter and rock chick and cut a Dusty Springfield tribute. On the self-produced Revelation Road she's gone minimalist and acoustic, most of its songs documenting the pain of lost love, veering between southern soul ("Even Angels") and MOR country ("The Thief"). The title track is a rolling, Dylanesque commentary on religious fervour, while the stand-out, "Heaven's Only Days Down the Road", addresses an early trauma when her father murdered her mother before killing himself; a courageous, arresting piece....full text |
| Slantmagazine |
| Since rebooting her career with the Grammy-winning I Am Shelby Lynne, Shelby Lynne has rarely unleashed the huge, evocative alto or made use of the peerless interpretive skills that were her calling cards during her stint as a country singer. But on Revelation Road, her third studio album in under two years, there are a handful of moments when Lynne lets the full power of her instrument take center stage. It's the range Lynne brings back into her repertoire that elevates Revelation Road above its otherwise tepid Americana trappings. Though she's often praised for her genre-hopping, albums like Identity Crisis, Suit Yourself, and Tears, Lies, and Alibis have all found Lynne settling into a comfortable, low-key Americana niche over the last decade. Revelation Road, like so many other albums of its ilk, quickly establishes a pleasant midtempo shuffle and sticks to it for the bulk of its running time. As producer and sole credited instrumentalist on the relatively spare album, it's ultimately Lynne can only be faulted for the lackluster production. Her DIY approach is admirable to a certain extent, but her workmanlike acoustic guitar strumming on "The Thief" and "I Don't Need a Reason to Cry" never rises above competent and the tropical-themed arrangement of "Lead Me Love" sounds like the music from a Sandals Resorts commercial. The title track, which opens the album with its most layered and unconventional arrangement, draws the dullness of the rest of Revelation Road into sharp relief. With a phase-shifted, looped lead-guitar figure, staccato percussion line, and occasional minor-key drops, the song gives the false hope that the album may be Lynne's most progressive since I Am Shelby Lynne. Instead, "Revelation Road" settles for being one of the best individual songs Lynne has ever recorded, as the singer reveals cockeyed insights and casual philosophies before belting the final refrains with a real sense of empowerment. It's stirring stuff, really, and it makes the more straightforward confessional songwriting and the safe, coffeehouse production of the remainder of the album a letdown. There are isolated moments in which Lynne's songwriting seems to address the troubled past she's long avoided publicly confronting: She addresses a character as "Sissy," the name she uses in interviews to refer to younger sister and fellow recording artist Allison Moorer, in the guarded make-a-run-for-it narrative of "I'll Hold Your Hand," and the haunting "Heaven's Only Days Down the Road" speaks of avenging the kind of murder-suicide that's famously part of Lynne's family history. Though the references are still guarded and oblique, it's these moments of personal revelation that are the album's strongest. A song like "Even Angels," with its clichéd images and turns of phrase ("Even angels fall sometimes" is its refrain) simply doesn't hold up in comparison to Lynne's more intimate writing....full text |
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