Album Review: The Civil Wars - The Civil Wars

Joy Williams and John Paul White don't get along anymore, but they've managed to make a second LP despite their animosity that stands up to their triumphant debut. If you were to criticise their first LP, you'd argue their stark country songs were too earnest. That's not toned down here, opening with Williams professing “I wish you were the one that got away”, and featuring Smashing Pumpkins' Disarm, and generally spiking their songs with bitterness. There can be great beauty in darkness and conflict; that's what The Civil Wars prove most of all here.