Vic Chesnutt may well be the greatest popular music lyricist of his time. Awash with brilliant wordplay and allusion, his sad, funny songs reveal the complexities of individual consciousness to an extent that no other writer has done. After hours of listening to this album, you'll finally begin to realize his grasp of self, how fully he realizes the absurdity of life. "West of Rome" is his first masterpiece,a kind of folk tour through Athens, Georgia, that bohemian enclave in the heart of the rural South. Vic fights through the social gnats of "Soggy Tongues" while attempting to understand himself ("Stupid Preoccupations"), and the culture which he was raised in ("Bug"). Along the way, he notes in exquisite detail characters and situations that would "make a whale of a movie", a poignant, realistic one. Endlessy clever and inventive in rhyme, always sincere in emotion, "West of Rome" functions as the musical successor of Faulkner and O'Connor, and is a work of genius. Get a free New West / RT exclusive cd sampler while stocks last.
