Wade Ogle’s triumphant “Lovers and Fighters” mostly about love | Jeff’s Band Notes

By Jeff Sistrunk

With “Lovers and Fighters,” Northwest Arkansas scene veteran Wade Ogle delivers a passionate modern folk release that should be a sure contender for Album of the Year at this year’s NAMAs.

In recent interviews, Ogle described “Lovers and Fighters” as a more intimate, personal effort, and those tags definitely apply.

The album is a sprawling, headphone-friendly outing. Almost every song features extensive studio manipulation: echo, reverb and multi-tracked vocals are all key parts of Ogle’s M.O. on the album.

Instead of overpowering the compositions, however, these effects greatly enhance the songs’ emotional impact. The shimmering production, combined with the strong songwriting, equal one of the most compulsively listenable albums in any genre in recent memory, from a local artist or otherwise.

“Lovers and Fighters” roars out of the gate with a handful of excellent songs that cover a variety of motifs. The dark, organ-driven “Dark Goes the Road,” with its tribal drumbeats, feels like a solo drive down an icy, deserted highway.

On the mournful ballad “Where Is My Love” Ogle’s Leonard Cohen-esque baritone conveys more genuine, raw emotion than can be found on a dozen cookie-cutter Top 40-radio tearjerkers. The musically upbeat “Damned” casts Ogle in the role of a reflective murderer who has taken the life of his “one true love.”

The centerpiece of the album is the three-part “Blues for the Tigress.” Parts I, II, and III constitute the beginning, middle and end of “Lovers and Fighters.”

The propulsive opening number “Blues for the Tigress I” rides a smooth wave of acoustic strumming and organ before deliciously catchy electric riffs float in. The song also features a soulful vocal-and-keys breakdown. “Blues for the Tigress II” opens up a bit more somberly, with a simple bassline, echoing guitars and distant harmonica textures.

The psychedelic closer “Blues to the Tigress III” puts the perfect cap on the trio and the album as a whole. It’s a gorgeously layered stunner that meanders along on a spliff tempo and features echo-saturated ambiance and breezy acoustic melodies alongside Ogle’s mostly indecipherable crooning. The ethereal outro seems to rise up beyond the atmosphere, weightless as a feather, before dissipating into the ether.

Perhaps my only complaint is that the best songs seem to be top-loaded onto the first half of “Lovers and Fighters”; the first few songs of the album’s second half pack considerably less punch.

The pretty cuts “Wild and Free” and “The Willow Tree” bleed into one another, while “Shady Acres” and “500 Miles from My Home” are pleasant but ultimately forgettable slices of pop-folk.

Fortunately, penultimate track “From a Mountain High,” a piano-heavy love letter featuring one of Ogle’s best performances on the record, recalls the power of the first five songs and sets up the transcendent “Blues for the Tigress III.”

There’s a ways to go before awards season in Fayetteville, but I would definitely urge voters to consider penciling in Ogle and “Lovers and Fighters” on their ballots.

Grade: A

SIMILAR POSTS

• Wade Ogle releases “Lovers and Fighters” to cheering crowd at Dickson Theater | Jeff’s Band Notes at 10:07 pm on January 25, 2010
• Wade’s Songbook – “An American Trilogy” by Elvis Presley at 12:00 am on October 13, 2009
• Wade’s Songbook – “Cry Me a River” by Joe Cocker at 11:00 pm on October 7, 2009
• Wade’s Songbook – “The Partisan” by Leonard Cohen at 10:57 pm on October 10, 2009
• Wade’s Songbook – Al Swearengen gives a peptalk from Deadwood at 11:18 am on October 12, 2009