Taking what he has started upon ‘Peculiar, Missouri’, Willi Carlisle leans on finding empathy within murky territory. On ‘Critterland’, he carefully crafts an album that explores the complexities of human relationships amidst pained struggles, resulting in a superb project where the detailed writing and expressive songcraft only make the desire for empathy be reached even more.
What comes through gaining more wisdom across the passage of time is the ability to understand weary, mature situations more deeply and attempt to embrace more empathy and changes more than before, especially when the younger sense of self toys with mature, sensitively traumatic themes that don’t encapsulate the reality of those who have gone through those situations in the past. The people who can really absorb these situations are artists and musicians who create stories in their lifetime, just like Willi Carlisle, the country musician who has explored mature themes within the facets of country folk since 2016, with every passing album showing the insight and wisdom that he has applied to the grounded, detailed stories that he tells. Passing over to the year 2024, ‘Critterland’ embodies more of that empathy that has lurked within Willi Carlisle’s work, but now it teethers closer to the core of the darkness even more.
Continuing from ‘Peculiar, Missouri’, this album extends the characteristics from his sophomore record on both theme and sound, with Willi Carlisle putting up his theatrical sensibilities as he flits across the stories told. Just like ‘Peculiar, Missouri’, there is a richness in how the acoustics, pedal steel, and accordion sound as their melodies go into intriguing layers, bringing a sense of liveliness that works well with Willi Carlisle’s vocal twang. Opener ‘Critterland’ presents those qualities exceptionally as the ruffling melodies across the banjos and guitars amidst the pedal steel and accordion overall make for a lively cut, so does ‘Higher Lonesome’ and ‘Jaybird’ with the similar shuffling strumming from the aforementioned acoustics, even having the accordion passing by on the former track for some extra melodic texture. However, that lively aspect underscores darker stories, something that the rest of the tracks just outright show with their minimal presentation. The violin and piano-accented ‘When the Pills Wear Off’ where Willi Carlisle’s delivery sounds more somber and numbed, the pedal steel focus of ‘Dry County Dust’ that echoes throughout the song, the rustic guitar tones that carry a sense of sadness on ‘The Arrangements’, and the gentle melodies from the guitars and accordion across ‘The Great Depression’ are solemn cuts, but their melodic construction paired with Willi Carlisle’s vocal delivery allows the emotions to seep through and allows the listener to pay attention to the stories he sings about.
This, in turn, leads to the narrative aspect of ‘Critterland’, which carries the torch of ‘Peculiar, Missouri’ where Willi Carlisle specifically writes and sings about individuals who are struggling across the countryside, emphasizing empathy and love for those people while also embracing the darkness that props up on that album, even if he does flip the tone for something lighter yet nevertheless does not throw away that grounded detail. The overall tone of ‘Critterland’, however, tilts more towards that darkness the most as Willi Carlisle extends his populist writing to examine and empathize with the characters and stories where the pained complexity in their relationships are explored in aching fashion, an overall attempt that Willi Carlisle succeeds in an impressive way, where it’s not just due to his delivery that carries that emotional weight from these stories, but it’s in his poetry. Filled with detail and tone that only makes the songwriting incredibly potent in the lyrical pictures that he paints, starting with the portrayal of a man who will carry the bravery to protect the love of his family and everybody else who deserves it on ‘Critterland’, the introspection of someone who has experienced amounts of trauma from the dour events of the past yet is still willing to live due to the love that they have received during ‘The Great Depression’, the two-headed lamb that despite its short-lived life is still given care by the farmer on ‘Two-Headed Lamb’, then comes to the songs surrounding conflicted families of ‘The Arrangements’ and ‘Dry County Dust’ where the former explores the son who has to bury his conflicting father just as his attitude rubbed off on him and the latter reflects upon the conflicted emotions towards the mother that have exceeded expectations for her child, which only makes ‘I Want No Children’ even more cutting as that’s about deciding to end the family name with the protagonist.
The stories get darker as it goes further, such as the observation of how the road life can be exceptionally sorrowful and lonely on ‘Higher Lonesome’, the heart-aching acceptance of a friend’s suicide on ‘Jaybird’, the devastating story of drug abuse on ‘When the Pills Wear’ that is a careful and mature take on the subject by Carlisle after he wishes to expand that framing on that topic due to his contemplation upon his old song ‘Cheap Cocaine’, which eventually leads up to the 7-minute spoken word closer ‘The Money Grows On Trees’, an outlaw tale that starts with a spare guitar that transitions to rainfall and Willi Carlisle’s voice as he narrates the complicated tango of the outlaw and the sheriff, where the underlying conventional morality of those characters are pushed out, especially when there is money involved that only creates corrupt power that will do whatever they want to those that they perceive as “evil”.
There might be flubs in the pace of the album as the instrumentation of ‘Two-Headed Lamb’ and ‘I Want No Children’ can get languid, but they still manage to work within the album as the writing in itself is impressively strong, especially in how Willi Carlisle explores themes surrounding complex relationships that despite the presence of death amongst other dour topics, he still sharply allow love to shine through even with the bleakness that swamps the entire room. It overall carries what has been placed upon ‘Peculiar, Missouri’ and then refines it to a point where the songs end up impactful and the writing hits that complex, yet impeccably real framing of how people still can care after everything that has happened to them or the people around them, ‘Critterland’ tugs on every fiber of the emotional gamut as it delivers on what Willi Carlisle has wanted to do. By singing these songs, there is a connection made, especially to those who are healing from experiences that are sorrowful, traumatic, and heart-wrenching.
Favorite Tracks: ’Critterland’, ‘Dry County Dust’, ‘The Arrangements’, ‘The Great Depression’, ‘Higher Lonesome’, ‘Jaybird’, ‘When The Pills Wear Off’
Least Favorite Track: ‘Two-Headed Lamb’