mon 02/12/2024

Album: Micah P Hinson - I Lie to You | reviews, news & interviews

Album: Micah P Hinson - I Lie to You

Album: Micah P Hinson - I Lie to You

Cult Americana perennial lays out his glooms with aplomb

But what's he lying about...

Even the jolliest number on Micah P Hinson’s new album, a banjo-pickin’, wistful campfire jig entitled “Waking on Eggshells”, has him singing, “Give me a knife, I’ll show you my vein”, alongside offers to “blow out your brain” with various firearms, and proclamations he “must be going insane”.

If the listener is after jollity, best look elsewhere then, but those searching for world-weary Americana could do worse than settle down, lonely and broken, with these 10 tracks from the Texas-raised singer.

Hinson has released numerous albums since he appeared 20 years ago. He has a penchant for recording fast and I Lie to You was nailed in five days in Italy with a partly Italian backing band and an Italian string arranger on the Italian indie label Ponderosa. You wouldn’t guess the Italian connection, though. It mostly sounds like the ruminations of a weathered old bar cowboy, an old man out of time, who has reached the end of the line in some godforsaken hick backwater and knows it (although Hinson is only 41).

“The Days of My Youth” mourns those long-gone times (“and the rain keeps falling”), the drowsy, loping waltz “Carelessly” sighs that “Carelessly we lost it all/I’m sure it didn’t mean a thing”, “What Does it Matter Now” is quite as desperate as its title suggests, and the same could be said of the trailside lament “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”.

Hinson’s quavering, cracked voice, atop piano, gentle acoustic, mandolin, occasional doleful strings, adds to the general air of desolation, although “Please, Daddy, Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas” drifts into the realm of kitsch, like one of those Johnny Cash parlour songs that plays the hokey maudlin a step too far.

The songs sometimes sound sketched rather than richly considered, as if they might have benefitted from deeper lyrical complexity, but it's still a decent set that continues to plough Hinson’s chosen furrow… as disconsolately as possible.

Watch the animated video for "Ignore the Days" by Micah P Hinson

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters