The Milk Carton Kids Lost Cause Lover Fool
It seems like The Milk Carton Kids have been around kind of forever. They’ve been a fixture on the Americana scene for 15 years, since they self-released their first album, Prologue, in 2011. But their quiet, folky sound dates back to a time well before they, or their louder 2010s contemporaries, were even alive. On their seventh studio album, Lost Cause Lover Fool, longtime musical partners Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan once again bring their acoustic guitars (along with a handful of other instruments), their unhurried harmonies, and a misty sense of melancholy to a collection of songs that add color to life’s more unheralded moments.
The album’s first track, “Blue Water,” begins peacefully, with guitar and banjo, in what could initially seem like a love song – “I walk down the riverside/Dreams of you all in my mind.” And, in a sense, it is a love song, but one written to a child – “Sing you sleeping on my chest” – now grown with problems of their own, the kind that tend to have been inherited – “I know you worry all the time/I know you got my spinning mind.” For a more traditional (lost) love song, check out the mandolin-dusted “A Friend Like You.” The road tune with a preordained parting at the end – “it’s harder to leave sometimes than it is to stay” – switches perspective to portray the leaver – “Close my eyes and I start speeding away” – as part of a pair who has lots to say, save the one thing that could keep them together – “I want to say a thousand things/But a friend like you could be the end of me.”
In recent years, Pattengale and Ryan have become known for their quippy timekillers during set changes while hosting The Americana Music Association Honors and Awards, so their moods, like their music, isn’t all sad. “Blinded and Smiling” is a twangy, Dobro-tinged tune about the simple art of photo-taking (the kind before you stored your camera in your pocket) – “You look at me like I’m crazy for taking so long” – and, more importantly, the memories behind those moments – “It’s just that I can’t understand why we can’t live forever.” Album capper “Young Love” is a (somewhat) upbeat lookback, featuring banjo and a whisper of electric guitar, on warmer days – “Do you ever hear my name/When the summer stars start shining/And nothing feels the same.” But it’s the aptly named “Sad Song,” penned by Willie Watson and Morgan Nagler and featuring upright bass from Dennis Crouch, that brings home ALL of the melancholy, when even a night out can’t solve your woes – “So raise your glass, I’ll just pretend/I’m still havin’ fun, but I know how it ends.” It’s one line, though, that sinks in with all of us listeners to our favorite genre – “‘Cause there’s always a sad song livin’ in my heart.” As Jim Lauderdale himself might say, “Now that’s Americana!”
Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “I’ll Go Home from Here” – banjo, a little electric guitar, and the prettiest harmonies on the record warm up this world-weary tune – “Overrun and overwrought/There ain’t a fight I haven’t fought.”
Lost Cause Lover Fool was produced and mixed by Kenneth Pattengale, engineered by Pattengale and Jason Cupp, and mastered by Kim Rosen. Songs written by The Milk Carton Kids (“Sad Song” written by Willie Watson and Morgan Nagler, “Ribbon” written by Maya Elizabeth de Vitry). Music performed by Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan (bass on “Sad Song” by Dennis Crouch).
Go here to order/stream Lost Cause Lover Fool (out April 24): https://stores.portmerch.com/themilkcartonkids/
https://30tgrs.ffm.to/lostcauseloverfool
Check out tour dates here: https://www.themilkcartonkids.com/
Enjoy some of our previous coverage here: REVIEW: The Milk Carton Kids “I Only See the Moon”