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Gillian Welch: The Harrow & The Harvest

Acony

You’d think that the parts of the long-awaited fifth Gillian Welch album would add up to a thoroughly old-timey whole. Welch and partner David Rawlings pared things back and didn’t use any outside help, and many of the songs have traditional-sounding titles. But, really, The Harrow & The Harvest is Welch and Rawlings’ most subtly modern album to date—and not just because they namedrop 1999 in the lyrics. Whereas Time (The Revelator) —the masterpiece from a decade back—heard them expanding songs into winding narratives, this new one finds them pondering rural life with more shades of sophistication to their slowly intoxicating melodies, their phrasing (Welch’s singing, Rawlings playing) and the scope of their storytelling. A great example is the way they explore interior life during “Dark Turn of Mind.” They’re the best they’ve ever been at what only they can do.