6. Brighter Than Creation's Dark / Drive-By Truckers

No record better escapes the parenthesis states and explores the vast middle that is America. On Brighter Than Creation's Dark, The Drive-By Truckers capture the sound and feeling of our sprawling country with an equally sprawling country-rock affair that touches on almost every potential subject. Much of this is due to the shared singing and songwriting duties between Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, and Shonna Tucker. As a result, the album contains nineteen far-ranging songs: the murder of a loved musician and family man (“Two Daughters and A Beautiful Wife”), the fear and resolve of a working man (“The Righteous Path”), the small-town bachelor who takes care of his mother and goes to church “when the fish aren’t biting,” (“Bob”), the bar band putting up with incoming city slickers (“The Opening Act”), the faithful wife dealing with her soldier's absence (“The Homefront”), the veteran coming home with the gravity of death (“That Man I Shot”), the adult pick-up artist (“Home Field Advantage”), and even the late-great John Ford shooting his cowboy epics (“Monument Valley”). In short, The Drive-By Truckers are the real deal.