(Ernest Jenning)

www.ernestjenning.com

For over a decade, Chris Mills has been turning in consistently gratifying records – and no doubt wondering how to pay the rent with the critical kudos they generate until his oft-predicted breakthrough. Still, the New York-by-way-of-Chicago veteran dwarfs many of the Americana luminaries he’s clumsily lumped with, as this blend of bent-for-hell, high-wire rockers and sad-bastard ballads again attests. Infused with Mills’ clever wordplay and an outlook that metronomes between Bush-era angst and cautious hope, Aftermath, while not a concept record, is unified by nostalgia – for a more holistic, pre-industrial past, or even for the sureties of the 20^th Century; as god-awful as things were, knowing the players’ motives provided some succor.

Mills filters it all through cultural touchstones – horror movies, late-night re-runs, comic books – to give the narratives palpable familiarity. On the horn-blasted rocker “Atom Smashers,” he acknowledges that “Hitler and Tojo” have their 21^st century counterparts in the “suicide bomber” and “Patriot Actor,” and on the choogling “All’s Well That Ends,” he advocates returning to a time, or mindset, when “we took comfort in the stars before we knew what they were.” Mills can also deliver emotional knock-out blows with a relationship requiem like “Such A Beautiful Thing” – featuring Jon Rauhouse’s high-and-lonesome pedal steel – or the dire warning for humanity implicit in “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” highlighted by Mills’ distraught vocals and David Nagler’s cathartic piano bridge.

Throughout, Aftermath’s arrangements (props to Nagler for the tasty horn sections) hit their marks; rich, but never cluttered. It’s pointless lamenting Mills’ on-going obscurity or wondering if this is the record to end it; let’s just hope his landlord recognizes the public service he’d be providing by going easy on the rent for a month or two.

Standout Tracks: “Atom Smashers,” “Such A Beautiful Thing” JOHN SCHACHT