Artist:Right Away, Great Captain
Album: The Church of the Good Thief
Genre: Folk Rock, Indie
Label: Favorite Gentlemen Records

If you can listen to the first 60 seconds of The Church of the Good Thief, the third album in the Right Away, Great Captain trilogy without crediting Andy Hull with the title of poet your heart is hard and your mind is jaded. Creating more of a novel than an album, Hull’s concept for Right Away, Great Captain borders on the brilliance of Hemingway himself. His concept has Hull tell the story of a 17th century sailor who returns home to find his wife between the sheets with his very own brother. Hull uses the trilogy, consisting of The Bitter End, The Eventually Home and The Church of the Good Thief, to take a first person perspective of the emotions this captain is left with following the tragic events in his life. The results create a trio of albums possessing a story worthy of a broadway stage. Luckily for us, Hull prefers to play them for us in our local dives.

Different from Manchester Orchestra in every way possible, Right Away, Great Captain frees Hull from the tangles of technology and allows him to return to the roots of a boy and his guitar. Above all, the storytelling takes the front seat. In a series of deep, confessional style conversations and letters, the album shies away from the recap style of writing. In reality, the listener is brought along for the journey. The Church of the Good Thief feels more like a drunken barroom conversation overheard from the next booth than a series of songs based on the past. Hull’s soft verses and frantic choruses reign through the album, as noted on tracks like “When I Met Death” and “I Am Aware”. Allowed to trim away the clutter of moogs and dual drums of his main project, Hull is able to expose an absolute rawness often ricocheted off the wall of sound built in Manchester Orchestra. The pure and honest elements of torment and betrayal tug at the listener’s heart strings and expand the listener’s mind. Think of Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea without the fuzz pedal and the addition of a set of oars.

Taking a calmer, Kevin Devine approach to the vocals, Hull replaces the jaded emo-screams and guttural howls with soft and sincerely painful confessions of heartbreaking situations. Through this approach, Hull shines. His folksy progressions support his heavy-handed messages without straining anything but the listener’s heart. For that reason, above all, I recommend this album (and this trilogy). It is both imaginative and creative. The deeply intelligent and poetically formed lyrics spawn a masterpiece in terms of both concept and musicality. The Church of the Good Thief proves that Andy Hull is not only one of the finest musicians of our independent scene, but also one of the brightest minds we have.

SCORE: 9/10
Review written by: Joshua Hammond

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