The Avett Brothers Take a Breather on The Third Gleam
Scott and Seth Avett and Bob Crawford relish the simple things in life on the third entry in their Gleam series
On their most recent Rick Rubin-produced album Closer Than Together, The Avett Brothers expressed their discontent for violence in the media, made a call for gun control (sort of), asked God to forgive America for our innumerable malfeasances and tried their hand at a real feminist anthem. While we know their intentions were good and true, these paltry plays at incorporating liberal politics into their increasingly pop-forward brand of nu-folk music did not necessarily go well for them.
But their musings on the bleak state of the world and American politics sound much less strained on The Third Gleam, their 10th studio album and the highly anticipated (at least among fans) third installment in the Gleam series, which, in its first two iterations released in 2006 and 2008, respectively, brought us beauties like “If It’s The Beaches” and Avett classics like “Souls Like The Wheels.” While The Avett Brothers lineup typically consists of a robust group of players including fiddler Tania Elizabeth and cellist Joe Kwon, The Third Gleam finds Scott and Seth Avett playing in a paired-down trio with longtime bassist Bob Crawford. This lineup more closely resembles the band in its early days, when Scott, Seth and Bob played their bombastic country-rock songs in grimey venues across the Southeast. If you’ve spent any time watching old Avett sets, you’ll know they were akin to a punk show.
But The Third Gleam is not a record of punk songs (like those Scott and Seth might’ve played in their first band in the early 2000s, a punk rock group called Nemo) or country-rock rambles. These eight songs are simple folk ditties dealing with themes The Avett Brothers have returned to again and again: spirituality, family and romantic tenderness. They also focus on living simply, and it just so happens that the sonic elements are simple, too, unlike their last three or four albums which, with help from Rubin, implement an array of pop production elements to varying degrees of success. On The Third Gleam, The Avett Brothers take a step back from all that gloss and shine and just focus on the songwriting, the harmonies and the dynamic between three musicians in a room. Hearing The Third Gleam is like stepping into a sunny, peaceful clearing after hours of running through the woods.
The “Untitled 4” track is fittingly the thematic and sonic center of The Third Gleam. The message is “less is more,” and while Scott and Seth may have been exploring that idea throughout Closer Than Together, too (i.e. disavowing action movies and media violence on “Bang Bang”), their message is clearer on “Untitled 4” because it’s more personal. “I don’t need to leave this small town / It don’t matter where I’m at,” they sing. “I finally learned what I need to know / I’m happier with nothing.” Scott and Seth still live in Concord, N.C., outside Charlotte, and based on images from their 2017 documentary May It Last, their homes are secluded. They’re happy where they are, and that admission of contentment is powerful.