Review: Robert Jon & The Wreck reach new pinnacle with latest album, ‘Heartbreaks & Last Goodbyes’

14 years since they formed, Robert Jon & The Wreck alight upon their most raucous and bombastic project. Heartbreaks & Last Goodbyes, produced by Grammy-winner Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell), ignites from the inside out, colorful-tinted fireworks shooting across the midnight sky. The band — comprised of Robert Jon Burrison (vocals, guitar), Henry James (lead guitar), Warren Murrel (bass), Jake Abernathie (keys), and Andrew Espantman (drums) — presses indelible imprints into love and loss, and redemption. “It’s all wrong,” Burrison loops on “Long Gone,” co-written with the one and only John Oates.

That sentiment propels the record into lurching along a dusty, rhythmic highway. White and yellow lines zip in their rearview mirror, putting distance between the past and present. The future sweeps onto the horizon as the blazing sun crests the earth. One of their standout, sweeping ballads emerges, “Ashes in the Snow,” in which Burrison slathers on the evocative longing in his vocal performance. Later, the band dips in for “Old Man,” a blistering guitar-soaked mid-tempo, and a jangly, saloon-spinning dervish “Better of Me.” Robert Jon & the Wreck carves zigs and zags in their arena-outfitted musicianship that whisks by the eardrums.

Heartbreaks & Last Goodbyes soars as a vulture circling in the sky, with its shadow transmitting through the clouds and plopping on scorched earth. The title cut sees a darkness radiating from the instruments, underscoring Burrison’s lead vocal that sends purple smoke rings from a campfire into the night air. “So, pour me more liquor and forget the ice ’cause I’ve been watered down too many times to say I loved you is to say I’ve tried,” howls Burrison, dripping with raw, visceral emotion. The lyrics capture the breadth of beauty of the record, discarding the bold theatrics for something simple and moving. There’s nothing more delicate than this song, which began as strictly acoustic before being dressed up with thrashing guitars, thumping piano, and the pitter-patter of percussion.

Robert Jon & the Wreck’s Heartbreaks & Last Goodbyes serves as a glimpse into their souls. They’ve reached the deepest recesses of human existence, which should put this collection on everyone’s must-listen list.

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