Hudson Bell’s ability to write songs filled with heart-breaking honesty and eye-opening insight must be a genetic gift. He has clearly shifted away from the slow-burning acoustic-folk fidelity that beautifully dominated his nostalgic debut, Under Boxes and Dirt, yet he remains one of the greatest and unheralded songwriters of this generation. He is a true singer’s songwriter or songwriter’s singer. This talent is embedded under his skin as evidenced in every song he shares. Bell’s previous album, Captain of the Old Girls, found Bell and a backing band down in Mississippi swinging their electric and acoustic instruments around a studio with Fat Possum’s Bruce Watson behind the recording desk. The result for Bell and his boys was the sound of greasy guitar chords, jarring rhythms, gorgeous piano playing, soft strums and the occasional harmonica harmony turning a Southern style into sonic rock song structures.

When the Sun is the Moon does not stray far from the same field that brought forth 2002’s recording, but this time around Bell brilliantly takes a long and winding road with his electric guitar playing. He allows distortion pedals to treble-kick the chords around his fuzzy finger picking and this is immediately found on the almost eight minute opus that opens the album, “Slow Burn.” As Bell’s electric guitar strings grind and grow into a dense rock rhythm, bassist John Slater and his drumming partner Brian Fraser explode with rock beats to produce a rock sound, albeit a new rock sound that is rich in intelligence and originality. Add to this Bell’s talent for turning out a literate line like, “Need a drink when you’re feeling like a loaded gun,” and what you have is a great sound of glory.

Bell’s literary leanings actually come quite naturally as he is a regular contributor to the most brilliant almanac currently in print known as The Minus Times. His short stories blur the fine line between fact and fiction and are filled with enough electric energy to turn all the humor and heartbreak into a life-saving nightlight. “Atlantis Nights” is a sweet and driving song that permits the drums to propel the music into an elliptical sphere that would sound just right when the car is roaring down the rolling roads of Big Sur. The atmospheric “The Falls” finds acoustic guitar strings flourishing alongside Bell’s lyrics which flow from his mouth slowly, softly and sincerely as he sings about “when the sun becomes the moon” before the electric strings weave a broken heart back together. “Seven Cities” is wiry, distorted and raucous and the off-kilter melody of “Strange Lands” soars with pure power pop perfection that is infectious and instantly accessible. When the Sun is the Moon was recorded in “about thirteen afternoons/evenings” in Oakland, California and places enough sonic explorations and literate images in your head to turn listening to Hudson Bell into the finest chime of freedom to be found. – Michael McLeod