Blame the Vain

by

Dwight Yoakam

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"Blame the Vain"could very well go down as the quintessential Dwight. Raw, edgy, less refined in parts than his previous releases? Indeed it is. But it is still a slick piece of work that hints, in one cut or another, at almost every influence Yoakam has ever embraced. From the ranting within "Intentional Heartache" and "She'll Remember" to the moving "Last Heart in Line" Yoakam covers the myriad of emotions involved in tumultuous relationships. The move to the stripped down arrangements on many of the songs does nothing but accentuate the power of Yoakam's true instrument, his voice. Throughout the entire lineup of songs Dwight Yoakam takes unexpected turns. Risky? Perhaps, but well worth the risk. This should prove to the naysayers (if there are ANY left out there) that Yoakam's "This Time" was no fluke. It proves Yoakam can put out a winner even working without the long time safety net of Pete Anderson's guitar and production skills. With "Just Passing Time" Dwight reminds us how skilled he is with painting lyrical pictures. "Blame the Vain" as a whole should prove to any who have ever doubted him, that Yoakam is the real deal. The guitar work thoughout by Texas native Keith Gattis, an artist in his own right, helps give this Dwight Yoakam project an entirely new sound. Still, the foundations of early Yoakam are indeed there and show themselves frequently. But the overall sound is a sound which the Yoakam / Gattis duo has honed to near perfection in the last couple of years of performing together during Yoakam's last stint on the road. What you have here is just that, near perfection. With all the cuts written and produced by the man himself, what you hear on this record is probably the closest to what Yoakam hears in his head, when he first sets out to write a song, as you're ever going to get.

Dwight Yoakam is at a crossroads, but it's not because of the departure of long-time producer and lead guitarist Pete Anderson. Rather, as evidenced on "Blame the Vain," Yoakam finds himself near the bottom of his artistic well as a songwriter. He can still churn out a handful of good tunes for his recording sessions, as he does here, but gone are the days of killer cuts from start to finish. It may be time for him to consider recording more new material from other songwriters or covering country classics as he's done occasionally in the past.

Still, what's best on "Blame the Vain" is as good as anything he's ever created. "Intentional Heartache" gallops like a mustang and ranks alongside Yoakam's signature hit "Guitars and Cadillacs" in the genre of foot-stomping country rocker. Equally excellent is "Just Passing Time," a melancholy number presented with sparse beauty. Also good: "Three Good Reasons," which evokes another of his greatest songs, "Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose" in tempo and tone. Perhaps the best cut is "The Last Heart in Line," a touching ballad with a glorious blend of soaring strings, muted horns, gentle guitars, and heartbroken lyrics.

Several of the remaining offerings - "Lucky That Way," "Does it Show," "I Wanna Love Again" and even the title cut - are middling tunes that sound like amateur efforts at copying Yoakam's songwriting style. Of the remainder, "When I First Came Here," "I'll Pretend," and "She'll Remember" are flat-out clunkers.

And then there are the oddities. "Watch Out" begins as a real good honky tonker with rockabilly flavor but then, jarringly, slams on the brakes, pauses momentarily, and re-starts as a completely unrelated ballad. A little while later, it brakes again, then resumes like it started. What was meant to be creative and clever, I suppose, comes across as annoying. Other oddities appear elsewhere, such as a long verbal rant on the back end of "Intentional Heartache" and a synthesized mess behind a phony British-accented spoken monologue that torturously introduces "She'll Remember." These very strange elements are perhaps the most evident aspect of Pete Anderson's absence. Nothing like them appeared in Yoakam's music when Anderson was running the control board, and one hopes their presence here reflects nothing more than a temporary outburst of amateur production creativity from Yoakam, who produced this CD himself.

To Yoakam's credit, however, even when "Blame the Vain" is foundering, it retains a high degree of energy and excellent musicianship. His vocals, too, are as good as ever. He remains a country-music force to be reckoned with, and he's still a far-superior presence among the lightweight, pretty-boy warblers in the industry. His next offering, with a little better song selection and the eradication of oddities, can be as good as ever.

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