‘This record is where I’ve been since you heard from me last’: Arlo McKinley & The Mess We’re In
Returning to Memphis’s Sam Phillips Studio, the crucible of 2020’s postulating Rust Belt heartacher Die Midwestern, Arlo McKinley’s This Mess We’re In picks up where his Oh Boy Records debut left off, punching for all he’s worth with a baker’s dozen that fills in the gaps of the pandemic years, marries the broken edges that nevertheless endeavor to fit, and offers such comfort as one man managing his own pain can. The Ohio native was nursed on a family record collection of hillbilly country, working man’s soul, and earnest songwriting but cut his teeth in the Cincinnati punk scene before segueing, like friend and former bandmate Jeremy Pinnell, from DIY cathartic-ism into a twang-flavored realm of confessional yet still visceral Americana.
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