The Spectacular Sadness of (Bloodshot, 2000)

The lyric sheet for the songs on the new Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys release reads as one long amazingly authentic country and western paragraph. There is a metaphor there, for the perpetuity of melancholy in country music and for the stream of consciousness outpouring of pain and suffering that marks the best of Hobart's brand of traditional honky tonk.

Hobart writes songs steeped in the Bakersfield mystique, whether they drip with the anguish of love lost or bristle with the anger of love spurned. The weeping brilliance of "I'm Not Drunk Enough," "'Til My Teardrops Turn to Gold" and "I'll Forget Her or Die Trying," the heartpounding pedal steel thrill of "Bridge Burners Union (Local 36)" and "Let's Keep Lying Here," and the insistent chug and churn of "It's My Turn" all combine to make another compelling and magnificent album for Rex and the Boys.