Striking in its raw vulnerability, Justin Townes Earle’s “Looking for a Place to Land” is offered with a sigh of acceptance. It’s a different kind of lament, without the expected tinge of anger — or even, necessarily, the hint of redemption.
This song, advance music from Earle’s forthcoming Absent Fathers, works more like this hard-eyed meditation on an emotion that feels both lasting and unfinished.
“Looking for a Place to Land” also heralds Justin Townes Earle’s second album in just over a year, two halves of the same concept that ended up as complete enough ideas that they were separated. Fitting, really, in that 2014’s release was called Single Mothers. Vagrant Records will release the companion piece Absent Fathers on January 15, 2015.
As tender as the former could no doubt be, the edgy acceptance of “Looking for a Place to Land” promises something more from the latter. Absent Fathers looks to complete Earle’s thoughts on being caught between estranged parents, and estranged emotions.
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