Human Remains (Sugar Hill)
Welcome back, Terry — it’s been too long. Twelve years, in fact, since
Bloodlines. But true artists don’t feel compelled to crank out product
for product’s sake, they put it out when it’s right. And Human Remains
is definitely right. “Gone to Texas” is, after an 18-year wait, the
followup to “Amarillo Highway,” vintage Allen trying to explain the mystique of
Texas highways and open spaces, before he finally gives up and decides that if
you don’t get it, you’re either a “Yankee” or a “critic.” And his duets with
Lucinda Williams are an unexpected but extremely welcome combination that
hopefully will be repeated often. Their voices don’t quite match, but they
blend together in a pleasant way, like Thelonious Monk’s off-key piano against
John Coltrane’s sax. Other songs, like the teenage-angry “Crisis Site 13,”
revive his flair for creating characters. Allen’s still a bit limited in his
musical range, and one or two songs are throwaways, but the album as a whole is
vital Texas intellectualism and creativity. It’s not Lubbock (On
Everything), but it easily stacks up against everything else in his
brilliant career.
HHH 1/2 — Lee Nichols
This article appears in February 16 • 1996 and February 16 • 1996 (Cover).