Micah P Hinson and The Red Empire Orchestra - Micah P. Hinson and the Red Empire Orchestra (Album)
Beginning with the softest of entreaties to “come home quickly darlin'’” this third album from Micah P. Hinson shows an artist who got old too quick actually growing up. Stark and grizzled the album has an inner glow that pulls listeners through the more desolate moments to the warmth of songs. The confessional tone of Tell Me It Ain’t So is resigned but not bitter and merges chrysalis-like into the thawing regret of When We Embraced and the longing strings of I Keep Having These Dreams. The lyrical content is as mournful as on previous albums but here Hinson appears to be using his songwriters talent to jettison the burdens he’s been carrying through his previous albums.
The albums natural nexus of Throw The Stone and Sunrise Over Olympus Mons give the impression of a thawing, kindling joy that gently bursts from the sombre orchestrations. These tracks also demarcate a subtle shift in songwriting style between confessional introspection and lyrics that describe or are directed at the world outside Hinson’s head. This shift is held together by concept-album elements such as recycled string parts and songs that dissolve into one another that gradually creep into the listener’s consciousness.
There is a wonderful gentle lilt to the whole affair but as with previous albums, Hinson’s voice – forged in a fire of pills, pain, heartache and regret – anchors the material and grounds the ephemeral arrangements of the Red Empire Orchestra with a suitable gravitas. It is this interplay between Hinson’s dry voice and his accompanists that ultimately proves the albums most rewarding facet. The strings, organs, banjo’s – and at one point a sitar – provide a wonderful counterpoint and work to more completely realise the irony, heartache and happiness present in Hinsom’s music and lyrics to provide a rewarding listening experience that draws you back time and again.
