Last year, Joshua Ray Walker was in the middle of intensive chemotherapy treatment for stage 3B colon cancer. Given where his head was at, it would be understandable if his latest LP, Stuff, were a collection of songs questioning mortality, life after death, and what we leave behind; a themed record about the final days. What you wouldn’t expect is a concept album based around the lives of the objects at an estate sale. But that’s exactly how Stuff plays out.
From a track about a Barbie doll to songs about bowling balls, perfume, and gardening shears, he does the seemingly impossible and gives an inner monologue to these inanimate objects that vacillate between the bizarre and the surprisingly touching. Like his last couple of records, Stuff also finds Walker branching out from the more traditional roadhouse country/blues of his earlier records and mixing in more electronic elements. “Barbie” is a perfect example, with Walker singing about whether the iconic doll should take the jeep out today or stay at home and play family, delivered over a steady throb of electronic beats. Musically, it’s more Depeche Mode than Stevie Ray Vaughn. “Perfume,” with its soft acoustic guitar picking, sounds more familiar to fans initially drawn to his Americana songs. Singing from the perspective of the perfume bottle, the track is surprisingly moving, nostalgically looking back on the past (again, this dialogue is coming from a perfume bottle). One of the strongest songs on the record, “Suit,” is another call back to his more familiar bluesy Americana roots, complete with a stellar fuzzed-out guitar solo and Walker delivering the lines like a seasoned roadhouse singer standing on stage behind chicken wire.
Despite the album’s eccentric concept, it succeeds because Walker fully commits to its experimental nature. A prime example is the song “Bowling Bowl,” where the vocals are slowed down and distorted to an almost comical degree, effectively capturing the sound of a bowling ball lumbering down the lane. Likewise, “Radio,” coming toward the end of the record, is equally experimental, starting with what sounds like an Italian opera. The song then abruptly shifts, with a dial-turning sound effect transitioning it into an old country tune before another frequency change introduces a new genre.
Stuff is the second album Walker recorded while undergoing cancer treatment and at a time when he was not sure how long he had left. It follows Tropicana, which was released just four months ago under an ambitious plan Walker had to put out three albums before he passed away. This latest record is a bizarre experiment on paper, but one that turns out to be both touching and life-affirming despite the narrator.
