Album Notes - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Wheel - Desire and Dissolving Men

In early November, I received an email announcing a 500-copy vinyl reissue for the 16th anniversary of an album I didn't know existed from an artist I love. It now gives me an excuse to go back to 2007 and revisit the evolution of Nathaniel Rateliff and to share some tunes that fit the encroaching winter perfectly. 

I was familiar with his solo, pre-Night Sweats work, but had not heard of Desire and Dissolving Men, officially released by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Wheel, which, funnily enough, features Rateliff playing nearly all of the instruments. The man himself called it, "The first album I’ve ever made on which all of the songs I recorded are exactly what I wanted them to be." Which is interesting, considering it's only his second release, and first to his name, following one with the group Born in the Flood. But in reality, it serves as an impressive historical document, hearing the then 30 year old, somewhat aged for an artist to set in motion a career to reach his current level of success, sounding not unlike the man a wider audience would come to know and love but also being a ways away from the more polished product of the last eight years. The elements are there, time and songwriting grit needed to form future diamonds.

Desire and Dissolving Men offers a preview of what would come, notably the innate melodic style and sense of harmony combined with that voice, as powerful and emotional as ever, that separates Rateliff from so many of his folk ilk. Hearing Desire, nine tracks recorded at home, for the first time recently was a pleasant surprise, but less than it otherwise would have been given my familiarity with 2010's In Memory of Loss, an album that demonstrates his evolving talent, not only over Desire, but from start to finish. Better songs, better recording, better production. The same could be said, at least the recording and production, for 2013's Falling Faster Than You Can Run, his last "pre-fame" record, aka, before he put together the Night Sweats. Falling is more of a step from In Memory as opposed to the leap from Desire, adding more sonic textures along with some hints of the stylistic embrace of soul soon to define his work. Taken together, these three records show an artist devoted to his craft, developing his sound, finding his "voice." In hindsight, the path to his present success seems evident.