Brothers Osbourne – “Skeletons” Album Review

My wife and I have a typical routine of doing a 1.5 hour “power clean” of our home on early Friday evenings to get it out of the way for the weekend. One reason I like this strategy is I get to crank up all the new music that drops on Friday mornings while I scrub toilets and shake my booty with the vacuum! The last cleaning session allowed me to listen to the whole Brothers Osbourne album “Skeletons” in consecutive order and I thought it would be fun to do an album review as a blog post so here it goes.

If an image could ever describe an album just imagine a ZZ Top “esque” Dad, wearing dusty cowboy boots and aviator sunglasses, cruising the streets of Memphis, Tennessee in a 1969 Pontiac GTO with the windows down, dashboard drumming and grooving to cranked up music…on his way to the local weed shop.

The 14 strong song 3rd album from brothers T.J. and John Osbourne is a rollercoaster ride of slick country-rock guitar riffs, hooks, grooves and arrangements that grab you like a piece of barbed wire fence, smooth like butter baritone vocals and lyrics that sing like a Hallmark card for cowboys, hippies and rockers alike. This album is meant to be played on a stage live.

Jay Joyce, who has been producing the Brothers since their first album and has also etched creative genius with artists such as Eric Church and Miranda Lambert, continues his sonic superiority on this album. On the track “Back on the Bottle” the chorus changes to half time giving it the sing a long effect of “Friends in Low Places”. Joyce’s choice of unique and appropriate instrumentation is displayed on full force during the track “I’m Not for Everyone” where an accordion is layered into the chorus and the second verse like it was always meant to be there.

Stand out tracks according to my ears were the opening track called “Lighten Up”, where a sombre ethereal intro turns 180 degrees into an edgy show starter. A megaphone vocal preaches the effects and unique perspectives to lighten up in this world from using lighters to giving more love. The album title track “Skeletons” opens up with the anticipation of a heart attack, keeps that momentum burning with tremolo guitar effects and oozes with anger when the hook gets laid down brilliantly screaming “well you got skeletons in your closet and I got bones to pick with them!”. “Hatin’ Somebody” is just a great message song with a funky groove. It could be played and sang by Grade 3 students and the future would be brighter for it if they followed the brothers rule of “hatin’ somebody ain’t never got nobody nowhere”.

Because I am guitar player the six-string work, tones and playing of John Osbourne on this album really sets it apart from many other current country albums. There is something about John’s riffs and playing that makes the songs and production more organic, raw and home grown. You can almost imagine John shredding the fretboard and creating all the unique notes and tones. He truly does have his own sound and style and it is nothing like what you hear on current country radio.

A very, classy and slick songwriting move by the Brothers was when they gave Willie Nelson some songwriting credit on their “Midnight Riders Prayer” track. Although the brothers version is in a minor key with a more "spooky" feel they borrowed the melody and lyric of Willies most famous track singing “on the road again” as they entered their version of the chorus.

The Brothers Osbourne have managed to carve out a niche and unique sound for themselves in a genre that tries to keep it on the pretty straight and narrow. I think for this reason we will be hearing these gentlemen for a long time on the radio waves and I am nothing but happy about that. Keep on grooving brothers!

Stay in tune and in touch.

Cheers,

Kent