# 14. Josh T. Pearson - Last of the Country Gentlemen
(Mute Records, March 14th 2011)
This is quite a difficult listen. Josh T. Pearson's first soloalbum, Last of the Country Gentlemen, is not an album you put on when you're having friends over for dinner. In fact it is an album you probably will have to listen to alone. I have very few records in my collection which are as bleak lyrically as this album - still, that is the appeal of this album. Musicially it's a pretty sparse affair, lyrically it's almost painfully honest. This is the sound of a man falling apart set to music. That said, the music and vocal performance has an almost sacral feel to it. Pearson's voice fills the room and you have no other choice but to just listen.
In "Sweetheart I Ain't Your Christ" Pearson is brutally honest about not being the man his woman wants and needs him to be. The lyrics are as I said almost painfully bleak, but still they have got a lot of humour as well. In "Sweetheart.." he sings "There's no need to cry those eyes - I'll pack my bags and say goodbye - And my return in your lifetime, is more unlikely than king Jesus Christ's." It's harsh, but it's also with some black humour.
The songs on the album are so dark that Pearson himself wasn't sure about even releasing the album. It's very personal album and a view into a person's own living hell. That said, the sacral feeling I talked about earlier gives the album some light and it's not all just misery.
Josh T. Pearson - Woman, When I've Raised Hell
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