Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Experience shows in all manner of ways, it makes at times what can be easy work seem dramatic and full of confidence, it can be seen as knowing full well what to expect and how to handle the situation thrown at you with the force of a juggernaut careering out of control or it can suggest in no uncertain terms that to head somewhere once tainted is a waste of time. For as Richmond Fontaine astutely point out in the tremendous album You Can’t Go Back If There’s Nothing To Go Back To, home is where they want you and where you are appreciated, everything is just scrubland and unloved inhospitable surroundings.

Since the band first appeared in studio form 20 years ago, a lot may have changed, yet the core essence, the ethos of the band remains intact as the soul cradled alternative Country music is once more allowed to have free reign and take the musical horse out into the wilderness and come back carrying favour, hope and intelligently driven songs.

It is the lyrical fulfilment that the band square off against the rough country tracks and the wilds of indifference, the back drop of the harsh and unwelcoming who set out traps and pitfalls to be avoided but kept in mind that should you return laden with creative nuggets of cool and well defined music and they sniff with desolation, then the only thing to do is keep riding, keep going until in another town they love you for all that you do.

You Can’t Go Back If There’s Nothing To Go Back To takes the listener away from the undisguised bleak desert lands and instead saddles up with firm promises and intentions to provide a narrative of a different route, one that really gets into the soul and captures a little bit of the prairie dust and the solace of a long journey in search of stories well told.

In songs such as Let’s Hit One More Place, I Can’t Black It Out If I Wake Up And Remember, Leaving Bev’s Miners Club At Dawn and the nourish feel to A Night In The City, Richmond Fontaine provides not just a solitary horse in which to confide in but a whole wagon train, complete with provisions and an address in which everybody is welcome to ply their trade.

A gorgeous album, full of introspection and thought; Richmond Fontaine have again proved exactly what makes a good song tick, You Can’t Go Back If There’s Nothing To Go Back To is a contender for the genre’s album of the year.

Ian D. Hall