Josh Rouse spent the year after Nashville‘s release in Spain, where he moved in with girlfriend Paz Suay. So the Nebraska boy who made his name in Nashville was suddenly a Spaniard.
His next release, 2006’s Subtitulo, reflected the move in its lyrics as well as, to some degree, its music. The album is predominantly made up of Rouse’s brand of smart acoustic pop but he introduced a few Latin flavors, including Suay’s charming vocals on one track.
In 2005, Josh Rouse released Nashville, my favorite of his albums and (probably not coincidentally) the one that introduced me to his work. Every track on this album is superb. Listening to it as preparation for this blog entry, I started reconsidering placing it at only #8 on my decade’s-best list.
In contrast to the two concept-heavy records that preceded it, Nashville is just a collection of songs. But the musical exploration of those records helped settle Rouse into a songwriting groove that had him hitting the sweet spot on every one of these tracks. From the Smiths-inspired ‘Welcome to the Hamptons’ to the blues-swing of ‘Why Won’t You Tell Me What,’ every note feels like the right one.
A year after Under Cold Blue Stars, in 2003, Josh Rouse released another semi-concept album, 1972. The album was named after the year Rouse was born (and the year I was born, incidentally) and the music and packaging were designed to evoke that era.
1972 is a definite candidate for Rouse’s best album. It’s certainly his most fun and musically adventurous… he packs strings, horns, flutes and eclectic percussion into every song and gives his falsetto a workout on tracks both sensual and surreal. He even finds room for a mournful acoustic track that makes the best use of gospel backup singers this side of Lyle Lovett.
In 2002, with the release of his third full-length album, Under Cold Blue Stars, Josh Rouse the caterpillar became Josh Rouse the butterfly. While his first two albums established him as a solid pop-rock songwriter, they didn’t set him apart from the pack. Under Cold Blue Stars very much did.
This is a concept album loosely based on the lives of Rouse’s parents, or as he puts it in the production notes, “a Midwestern couple in the 1950s.” The songs don’t exactly tell a linear story but they touch on different moments in a relationship, from the giddy lovesick beginning through trials of infidelity and emotional and physical distance through to a comfortable, if not outright happy, finish.
Josh Rouse’s second album, Home, was released in 2000 and basically picked up where Dressed Up Like Nebraska left off. Rouse was born in Nebraska, incidentally, a distinction he shares with fellow pop tunesmiths Elliott Smith, Conor Oberst and Matthew Sweet. Must be something in the water of the Great Plains.
Home has a more polished sound than Rouse’s debut and introduces horns and strings into the mix. But it’s otherwise not much of a departure… more solid, mostly acoustic pop songs.
Meet Me In Montauk 