Patterson Hood - Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams


Patterson Hood’s Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams doesn’t start so much as it emerges, like something creeping out of the woods at dusk. His first solo album in over a decade, it feels both quiet and dangerous, a deliberate departure from the loud guitars of Drive-By Truckers. Hood, now a Portlander, recorded this one at Jackpot Studios with producer Chris Funk (The Decemberists), a longtime friend and co-conspirator. There’s a kind of intimacy here, helped along by a sprawling list of collaborators—Lydia Loveless, Waxahatchee, Kevin Morby, members of Los Lobos, and The Decemberists, all weaving in and out.

It starts with “Exploding Trees,” a slow-burning, piano-drenched ghost of a song. The electric guitar flickers like headlights in the distance, and Hood’s foggy voice drifts through it all. Then, boom—the cataclysmic drums, processed to the point of breaking, send the track into chaos. From there, it’s a winding path. “The Pool House” creeps in like a half-remembered dream, strings rising and falling, piano dipping in and out, until tension finally breaks into a delicate flute line. It’s cinematic and haunted, a track that feels both immediate and impossibly far away. The album’s middle unspools in layers. “A Werewolf and a Girl” walks a taut line between rock and alt-country, with spartan drums and Lydia Loveless adding fragile harmonies to the kind of tune Hood might’ve handed off to his main band in another life. Then comes “The Forks of Cypress,” a sparse country ballad that Waxahatchee’s voice turns into something timeless. It’s simple, beautiful, and utterly real—you can practically feel the snare brush under your fingertips.

But just when you settle in, the album breaks loose. “The Van Pelt Parties” is pure honky-punk chaos, all snarling guitars and raw energy—a reminder of Hood’s roots, if you needed one. And then there’s “Last Hope,” the knife twist. It’s not so much a song as a surrender: aching piano, lyrics that sound like they hurt to write, and vocals that crumble under their own weight. No resolution, no catharsis, just emptiness. “At Safe Distance” stays there, simmering rather than exploding, the kind of song that the Drive-By Truckers might stretch into a roar on stage but here sits coiled, restrained. The closer, “Pinocchio,” feels like a sigh after all that heaviness. It’s soft, almost shy, an acoustic melody that tiptoes toward hope without quite letting go of the ache. There’s sweetness in it, though—the kind that comes from stripping away everything false, even if it's at the expense of comfort or relationships.

This is Patterson Hood’s America: bruised, bitter, and beautiful. The songs seem simple at first, but they’re full of odd corners and unexpected edges. Instruments take on new lives, doing things they weren’t designed to do. Melodies twist and falter. Stories whisper and shout. You have to meet them on their own terms, scratch the surface, lean in close. And when you do, you’ll find something worth holding on to—no matter how much it might hurt.

Genre: Rock, Alt-Country

Release date: February 21st, 2025

Produced by: Chris Funk

Label: ATO Records

Rating: 9/10

 

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