Wandering poet. Novelist whose work has been translated into Serbian. Gladiator opposing the efforts of New Zealand’s national library to divest itself of books. Rock musician prodding an unambitious Kiwi scene into life well before the Nun learned how to Fly. Bill Direen has been all of these things.
When he turns to music, Direen usually appoints whoever is playing with him some variation on his name, but his associate musicians are never ciphers. Dustbin Of Empathy is a long-term consequence of the Cropped Out Festival’s choice to invite Direen to Louisville, Ky., in 2018. Bassist Matt Swanson (Lambchop) put together a band, and they did a little tour of landlocked American burgs.
That could have been it, except that Direen wrote a bunch of songs for the occasion. It would appear that he left them to Swanson and multi-instrumentalist Alex McManus (Lambchop, Bruces, Simon Joyner, Vic Chesnutt) to finish. Direen’s work across the ages has often seemed deceptively dashed-off, but it only takes one close listen to one of his songs to know that you’re hearing someone who chooses words with excruciating discipline. That doesn’t change on Dustbin Of Empathy. Direen takes on the history of war and the ways people survive it, fatal family dysfunction and human ambivalence regarding agency—and that’s just a few of its 14 songs. None of them are slight, and each will reel you in again and again.
But let’s not forget McManus and Swanson’s efforts. They’ve risen to the challenge of those words, building the songs out into spare pop constructions by upholstering Direen’s austere progressions with plush Wurlitzer piano, empathetically understated guitars, contrapuntal bass melodies and the occasional spare drumbeat. They’ve invested what could have been a moment fit mainly for tall tales in music-head circles into a work that’ll stay with you if you let it. [Grapefruit/Sophomore Lounge]
—Bill Meyer
