Punch Brothers, Punch

Before I begin this review, I feel it’s important for you to understand where I’m coming from. I’m not a bluegrass afficionado. Like some of you, I once thought of bluegrass as the music Appalachian hillbillies played while waiting for their moonshine to distill. This all changed when I heard mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile cover “Morning Bell.” Yes, that “Morning Bell,” by Radiohead, from their monumental album Kid A. After a long stint with the bluegrass pop band Nickel Creek and a few solo albums, Thile assembled a band to capture his creative vision and explore the limits of bluegrass. An LP and a few name changes later, the Punch Brothers were born.

The opening track of Punch, “Punch Bowl,” is your typical bluegrass affair: a charming interplay between each stringed instrument overlaying clever harmonization and folksy vocals. This is all good and well, but it merits no special attention. The crux of the album is the four-part bluegrass suite, “The Blind Leaving the Blind,” a cathartic masterpiece influenced by the events of Thile’s divorce. Gone are the traditional Appalachian sounds and melodies, replaced by a potent blend of highly technical chamber music and evocative bluegrass. The music apparently diverges so much from traditional bluegrass that it made seasoned banjo player Noam Pikelny openly admit to reevaluating what can and cannot be done on his instrument. The suite seamlessly flows between beautiful instrumental passages and wonderfully crafted verses that depict a man struggling to save his doomed marriage.

Nothing about the album feels traditional. The songs lack any real structure, and much of the music feels like the chaotic improvisations of friends who are emotionally and mentally synched to their friends’ emotional trials. The result is an uncompromising and brilliant composition. The last two tracks, “Nothing, then” and “It’ll Happen,” might lack the ambition of “The Blind Leaving the Blind,” but they still neatly and carefully wrap up the album.

I’m unsure of how the bluegrass community will receive this album. It’s certainly unorthodox and might be unpalatable to the bluegrass faithful. As a person who grew up listening and playing classical music, however, it’s impossible not to love and appreciate this album. It’s hard to believe that five-stringed instruments are able to produce such a rich sound. The album grew on me each time I listened to it, and I had to listen to it multiple times to fully take in what I heard. Punch is absolutely astounding.