“Cape Fear River” is a vigorous and dark rock song about the burdens of our roots, about the decline of rural America, about young men trying to live up to their fathers†expectations, about hitting the road. “We arenâ€t the men, we arenâ€t the men our fathers were,” B.J. sings.

And later: “Somehow I still think I made him proud, just by getting out.”

The Raleigh-based American Aquariumâ€s previous albums have captured the intense resentment of jilted lovers and the desperation of trying to find a place in the world, often with biting irony, but Burn.Flicker.Die. has an emotional depth and musical breadth that goes beyond the earlier work. And I love the earlier work: both Dances for the Lonely and Small Town Hymns have been in steady rotation at my house since they came out.

“Cape Fear River” isnâ€t the only song that evokes a specific place.

American Aquarium at The Jinx in June

So much of contemporary country music has a jingoistic defensiveness, but anyone who has heard B.J.â€s rants about Toby Keith knows what he thinks about that strain of Southern culture. The South of American Aquarium is one of unfulfilling jobs and broken dreams — we either succumb or rage against it. The ballad “Casualties”, which wraps those themes up with the perils of life on the road, lilts upward with a sense of both pride and loss: “I used to be a decent man, then life just took its toll.”

Iâ€m surely making all of this sound way, way too heavy – certainly heavier than the bandâ€s tight, energetic, and joyous live shows. The themes are dark – “We burn too long, we flicker and die” – but the lyrics often shimmer with humor and unexpected pleasure. There’s sharp imagery captured in unpredictable rhymes.

And the instrumentation, which often has an even broader range than the lyrics, is often beautiful as it calls upon the great traditions of southern rock, honky tonk country, even blues.

The complexity of the sound is surely due in part to recording the album in Muscle Shoals with Jason Isbell, but far more credit goes to the band members†individual skills and collective ear.

Whit Wright on pedal steel, Ryan Johnson on lead guitar, Bill Corbin on bass, and Kevin McClain on drums drive the songs that need driven and then back off to give room for B.J.

Sure, there are a few choices on the album that don’t work as well as others. The closing seconds of the title track have sounded great live, but the seriousness of the repeated chorus seems a bit too heavy here. And I wish the stories occasionally unfolded as simpler narratives rather than as explorations of such dark themes. But those are minor quibbles.

Thereâ€s a release show tonight in Raleigh. American Aquariumâ€s tour to promote the album kicks off at The Jinx in Savannah on Friday, August 31st.

Click here to listen to or purchase the album on the bandâ€s website.

Click here for other upcoming tour dates.

And here are a few pics I took the last time American Aquarium came through Savannah, just this past June:

Fresh off a swing through Europe, the Raleigh-based band ripped through a great set that included some of their tried and true songs like “Katharine Belle”, “I Hope He Breaks Your Heart”, and “I Ain’t Going to the Bar Tonight”, but also included some songs off their upcoming album, “Burn.Flicker.Die.” recorded with Jason Isbell in Muscle Shoals after a successful Kickstarter campaign.

The set included the title track (which I’ll probably mistakenly call “Redheads and Adderall” routinely), “Cape Fear River”, and — brace yourself — “Savannah Almost Killed Me”.

I’m expecting “Savannah Almost Killed Me” to become one of the defining songs of a certain segment of the local scene.

B.J. Barham is the frontman — and he was the only one in consistently good light all night. So there are lots of pictures of B.J. here, but I could watch the guy sing all night. His expressions are amazing, and I love how he steps back from the mic before attacking it again.

B.J. didn’t tell as many stories as usual, which made for a tighter night of rock and roll if a slightly less spontaneous edge than at some of their shows. In the photos below, you can see Ryan Johnson on guitar, Whit Wright on pedal steel (once again sitting in near darkness!), Bill Corbin on bass, and Kevin McClain on drums.

When I got downtown, there was a spectacular sunset in progress. And then I met a friend with a group of vacationing women at The Sparetime; they had a weirdly large number of beverages-in-progress on their table.

Click for supersized versions — and then you can just scroll through at full size if you want.

Here’s “I Hope He Breaks Your Heart” with the whole bitter backstory from B.J.:

“Tennessee”:

“Reidsville”:

B.J. Barham of American Aquarium at The Jinx in 2010