These are some of the lyrics from 'Town,' the opening track on Richard Buckner's Meadow, sung to an urgent progression of distorted electric and acoustic guitars and drums.
"[1] In Pitchfork, Brian Howe wrote, "The elliptical on-the-lam song 'Town', where Buckner's voice skids over crashing waves of guitar, is a perfect example of the tense instrumental/vocal interface and compelling inscrutability that mark his modern style.
There's an elusive 'it' that scuttles off every time you think you've drawn a bead on it; there's a one-sided dialogue with an unknown interlocutor; there're clusters of self-negating language circling the unspeakable; and most of all, there's a sense of glittering stasis and temporal inflation, as if this one infinitesimal instant has become a recursive loop Buckner's trying to sing his way out of: 'Last night the rain just wouldn't fall,' he sings, pregnant drops trembling in midair.
"[3] In a 7.5/10 Pitchfork review, Brian Howe wrote, "The raw twang and declarative simplicity of Buckner's debut marked it as a clear emanation of the folk tradition...
Hopefully this record will finally be the wake-up call that the world needs to take notice and give props to this amazing writer, placing him on that top shelf next to the greats like [Bob] Dylan, [and Neil] Young.