On August 22, Jim Bob released his 13th and 14th albums on the same day- Automatic and Stick.
While this is a basic generalization, Automatic is in the mold of his last three albums- a series of narratives from everyday life in which Jim Bob can skewer society when it needs it and compliment the positive aspects we need to hear too.
But Stick is a louder, noisier affair that is closer to the albums he made 30-some years ago as part of Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine.
Songs like “Art” and “Last Day of the Tour” are pure glam rock stomp a la Slade and the Sweet and not altogether that much different from Carter USM’s 1991 album 30Something.
Closer "There’s Not Enough Space in the Hall" brings the proceedings to a close with an (almost) life affirming singalong with a reference to Amazon Alexa thrown in (it’s Jim Bob after all).
Opener “A Song by Me” is an expletive filled statement that would have opened a Carter album with the band in “power trio” mode. A song like “What a Sh*tshow” wouldn’t fit on Automatic lyrically or even musically (its melody similar to a punk reading of “I Had too Much to Dream Last Night” but we are better for having it.
While Carter USM were one of my favorite bands of that era, they probably weren’t in my top five favorites. But as implausible as it seems, Jim Bob has been honing his craft. I would put him up against any songwriter today, and Stick is kind of the fun punky record but the lyrics are solid too.
On Bandcamp, Jim Bob says ‘Automatic’ and ‘Stick’ are both the greatest album (sic) Jim Bob has ever made. He might not be wrong.
In the early 1990s, Carter USM rode a wave of indie rock that incorporated dance, hip hop and punk.
The band hit their peak in 1992- going to # 1 on the UK Album charts and their biggest success in the US with 1992:The Love Album.
Though the music of that time has faded largely from memory, 1992: The Love Album is an all time favorite of mine. Critics will occasionally bring up the band that form forgot. Carter threw puns about while making wry observations about the mundane day to day or sneaking in social criticism into catchy pop songs. The band had Ian Dury show up for a cameo, and though it may have seemed an unusual pairing at the time, there was definitely a linear path from Dury to Carter’s lyricist “Jim Bob”.
Although it felt trendy at the time, the music from the era didn’t age well. Now if doesn’t help to name your band “the Unstoppable Sex Machine” or have unconventional hairstyles or have the guitarist name himself Fruitbat.
But none of these bands get much praise anymore. In the US, the most successful band in this genre and time was Jesus Jones. Even with their massive success, you never hear anything about them.
I often hear among those friends around 50 years of age who much they loved Ned’s Atomic Dustbin but between Britpop and Grunge, it seems like this music was just a short lived fad.
Jim Bob didn’t stop when Carter broke up in 1998. He wrote an autobiography and then became a novelist. From 2003 to 2016, he released 7 albums. But it was 2020s Pop Up that brought him back to attention, breaking back onto the UK Album charts.
It was also the first time I had heard his solo music (and indeed, the first I had given him some thought in some time).
That album Pop Up, 2021s Who Do We Hate Today and 2023s Thanks for Reaching Out were revelations. Each record took personal narratives to make comment on the current world- whether it be toxic masculinity, cancel culture, gun violence or any number of other topics.
For my money, I am not sure there’s a better songwriter with that much quality output in that time frame.
My expectation would have been that after being so prolific, the quality would go down or the artist burn himself out. So I was shocked when JimBob approached 2025 by releasing two albums on the same day. More shocking is that they seem to be both quality.
Today, I am going to focus on Automatic. The other album Stick is a noisier affair that recalls the Carter USM days, but Automatic is very much in the vein of the three previous albums and is recorded with the same backing band.
On lead single “Danny From Nowhere”, he sings “I have broken a promise that I made to myself I’d never write another one of these songs”
But he has and he has done another album of them. Whether the lyric is true or artistic license Automatic follows the template and showcases his narratives of common people and their hobbies and worries whether it be drones, knitting or mortgage. There are everyday villains and everyday heroes. There are also killer one liners like “wars don’t end/just like Boy Bands they just go on hiatus”.
As good as his recent run is, the album unexpectedly may be the best one of his solo run yet. “Danny” is the single and it’s fantastic but my favorite song on the album is “Can you hear us at the back of the room”. At its heart, a riposte to people who complain about new music being derivative, but is a celebration of a lot of bands that influenced Jim.
There’s still no one quite like Jim Bob. Half Man Half Biscuit come to mind but they seem to come at things slightly different. There’s a bit of “how the hell do I categorize this” in that way you might say the same thing about The Divine Comedy or The Wedding Present or Gorkys Zygotic Mynci.
While Jim Bob says Automatic was originally planned as B-sides for his other album (an idea he quickly gave up deciding on two records) it is really one of my favorite records of the year and proof that Jim Bob is one of the planet’s underappreciated artistic geniuses.
I find Cody Jinks one of the more interesting artists in music right now.
He broke through about a decade ago at the forefront of a new generation of Outlaw Country.
No surprise that Jinks (like Hank Williams 3) came out of metal first. This new breed looked upon Johnny Cash as their hero, but superimposing what they thought he should be- a bit of Bon Scott and a bit of Lemmy, or had come to Ronnie Van Zant via James Hetfield.
This was the direct descendant of Copperhead Road- bluegrass at the crossroads with heavy metal.
When Jinks started making this music, mainstream country music was transitioning from a Fleetwood Mac/Eagles and Kenny Chesney’s Jimmy Buffet influence to a party style that was strongly influenced by early 00s hip hop (Nelly and Florida Georgia Line had one of the biggest country collaboration hits of 2020).
But the current country music landscape has switched to a more serious introspective vibe. While critics generally don’t like Morgan Wallen and Jelly Roll, their style is build off this vibe, and all across the charts - Zach Top, Cody Johnson, and Lainey Wilson among many others. It’s hard not to think that if Jinks had played the major label game, he could have cashed in.
That said (like Charlie Crockett who comes to the genre with a slightly different approach), Jinks probably isn’t too disappointed. He’s filling larger size venues while making the music he wants. At the end of the day, this is probably his ideal outcome. Heck, his song “Loud and Heavy” is (along with Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”) one of the top walk up songs in Major League Baseball.
Armchair critics can find plenty to complain about - Jinks has been over prolific at times, the production quality has sounded DIY, etc
But 2025s In My Blood sounds like the kind of album you would want him to make. It is very much in the vein of 2024s Change the Game. Produced by long time bassist, collaborator and producer Joshua Thompson along with engineer Charles Godfrey (Dropkick Murphys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Swans) it provides an accessible starting point for new fans, while generally providing the kind of front to back listen to satisfy most long time fans. There is a guest spot from Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke who if you don’t know, play blues influenced Southern Rock. That style mix would seem a good fit for Jinks fans.
That 2024 album introduced Jinks as a newly sober troubadour who was looking inward like a late era country star might have done. Those themes run through here as well. That said, it’s not like his MO has changed that much - Hank Williams and David Allen Coe get namedropped, the rock songs rock and the country ballads could fill an arena. It’s drawn from the crossover radio appeal of Hank Williams Jr and Travis Tritt just as much as it is from the outlaw feel of Merle and Waylon, but it also reflects the more modern mindset of Tyler Childers or Colter Wall.
Which means this won’t change anyone’s opinion - songs like Lost Highway will scratch the itch for renegade country and closer When Time Doesn’t Fly could for seamlessly on country radio. But most songs like Monster and Found ride both sides of that.
Which is the genius of Cody Jinks. Chris Stapleton may be the only artist that fits the tightrope of country radio and serious songwriting.
For example, Jason Isbell would sound out of place on country radio (even though his songs when sung by others have become hits) and Blake Shelton is never going to be taken seriously by critics, despite his booming voice. In-between lies Jinks.
There will be some people who will never be satisfied (chasing the fresh sound of 2015s breakout album The Adobe Sessions) but for most fans, it’s a solid set of songs from a now well established artist.
