Unentitled

If Slim Cessna’s Auto Club delivered 2008’s Cipher to serve as a reminder that faith is one heavy-assed burden, it cooked up Unentitled to remind listeners that the perils of this mortal coil can be just as weighty as those spiritual demands. Backing off the Old Testament brimstone, Unentitled wrestles with concerns as distinctly worldly as deformities, drought, farm calamities, and backwoods justice. Lined up next to its predecessor’s spiritual and conceptual heft, Unentitled is a downright easier—dare we say accessible?—listen. 

Unentitled’s still no breeze, as the Denver alt-country band plays to its idiosyncratic strengths on its sixth studio album, which leaves it cramming tales of rural Colorado into its signature blend of country, rock, folk, gospel, and just about any other flavor of American music that catches its fancy. Although not nearly as ambitious—or as dismally gloomy—as Cipher, Unentitled’s return to the tried-and-true Cessna formula sizzles with live-band energy. “No Doubt About It,” with its rock-beat backbone, is the most upbeat tune to come from the Cessna stables in years. The hillbilly energy in “The Unballed Ballad Of The New Folk Singer” collides with its garage-rock keyboards as a reminder of the band’s stage energy, and “My Last Black Scarf” is one last reminder that these Queen City veterans can kick up a cloud of dust.

The act’s rediscovered urgency doesn’t get in the way of its dense lyrics, with the band touching on several of its favorite themes, from a fascination with heavenly presence on Earth (“Thy Will Be Done”), backwoods violence-as-justice (“Three Bloodhounds, Two Shepherds, One Fila Brasileiro”) to congregation politics (“United Bretheren”). Cipher’s big issues are gone, leaving the Club to concentrate on the folksy wisdom, storytelling, and folk-music craftsmanship of its early work. Every album can’t be a masterpiece on the level of Cipher, but that’s no strike against Unentitled: Slim Cessna’s Auto Club is still one of the crown jewels in the Colorado music scene.