November 2, 2012

The Avett Brothers – ‘The Carpenter’

The Avett Brothers are clearly happiest when they’re miserable

6 / 10 The Avett Brothers reflect on a life of regret and heartache as they put their seventh album through the wringer marked “sad banjo”. Produced, like their 2009 album ‘I And Love And You’, by Rick Rubin, ‘The Carpenter’ goes for jangly ’60s country rather than modern Ryan Adams-style Americana. Benmont Tench of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers sets his organ to stun as brothers Seth and Scott Avett exchange melancholy yarns of “Hell in paradise” on ‘Life’, before tackling lonesome highways on the Dylan-esque ‘The Once And Future Carpenter’. The Avetts are clearly happiest when they’re miserable. Which is fine, if you’re in that kind of mood.

Matthew Horton

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