Album Review: Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free

It was hard to know how now Nashville-settled Jason Isbell would follow the confessional candour of his breakthrough album, the aching and magnificent Southeastern.

Here, he’s the man who’s come out the other side – the alcoholic struggle so bluntly addressed on the debut. Things are still raw, but brighter. Isbell can now quietly celebrate what he might achieve, as in the title track. Conversely, in The Life You Chose, the regrets of what he may have lost beforehand are clearer as well.

Alt-country? Americana? Whatever, he’s made another utterly towering record.