re: Drive-By Truckers - The New OK

Album Rankings
1. The Dirty South (2004)
2. Decoration Day (2003)
3. Brighter Than Creation’s Dark (2008)
4. Southern Rock Opera (2001)
5. A Blessing and a Curse (2006)
6. American Band (2016)
7. English Oceans (2014)
8. Go-Go Boots (2011)
9. Pizza Deliverance (1999)
10. The New Ok (2020)
11. The Big To-Do (2010)
12. Gangstabilly (1998)
13. The Unraveling (2019)

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Each of these songs fall short when compared to Where the Devil Don’t Stay or the perfection of Zip City.

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I never said they did. I’m just pointing out that he has had an album with 4+ really good songs.

Mike Cooley All Time Best
1. Zip City
2. Marry Me
3. Where the Devil Don’t Stay
4. A Ghost to Most
5. Gravity’s Gone
6. When the Pin Hits the Shell
7. Three Dimes Down
8. shite Shots Count
9. Carl Perkin’s Cadillac
10. Get Downtown
11. Ramón Casiano
12. Guitar Man Upstairs
13. Daddy’s Cup
14. Self Destructive Zones
15. Made Up English Oceans
16. Sounds Better in the Song
17. Shut Up and Get on the Plane
18. Surrender Under Protest
19. Women Without Whiskey
20. Bob

Eyes Like Glue and One Of These Days are both better than the majority of your list.

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had a hard time finding anything in the genre that I have loved in quite some time... A lot of solid, not bad stuff.. but nothing I have really gotten excited about..

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Agreed that there’s been a lot of easily palatable and pleasant content but been a while since anyone crushed an album in the genre.

I don’t think it’s a right vs left issue but I do think writers have recently struggled to write great political music. A lot of it is just so directly on the nose and forgets nuance, depth, storytelling etc....

Old DBT was still great at making the point through well developed charters and narratives. Instead of spitting out headline snippets about moms vs cops in BLM protests in Portland, I’d love him telling the story of a mother that is standing up because of or within a fascinating character study/unknown story. Tell the story of a journalist out at these events and their family worried for them. Call me crazy but tell the story of an officer conflicted about his own role in this, good and bad. Or a politician having to choose between political expediency and their morals across a career and facing increasing conflict in that as tensions rise. Or a far down the line look back at the experience.

To just say it’s protests in Portland and moms and vets are with BLM against the cops doesn’t do it for me

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Musically it's not a bad song but I just can't get past the douchey preachy wokeness.

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Yeah, he can write whatever he wants. First Amendment and all... but I don't have to listen to that shite. And won't.

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That’s way too low a ranking for Women Without Whiskey.

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What about Carl Perkin's Cadillac? That may be their best song amongst all of them.

That's funny because none of those are in my top 5

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I saw Truckers live around 2000. It's the song that made me fall in love with them. The studio version is kinda meh, but it absolutely destroys live.

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I feel the same way about Ghost to Most. Heard it first on Austin City Limits and was my first favorite Truckers song. I do not like the studio version nearly as much.