Israel Nash's 'Topaz' is This Week's Must Hear Album

The singer-songwriter incorporates soul influences on his sixth record

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Last year, cosmic country troubadour Israel Nash released the Topaz EP a five-song set that further cemented his status as one of my favorite singer-songwriters working today.

In December, Nash announced a full-length version, and after a long wait, Topaz doesn’t disappoint.

After recording a few Americana albums, Nash released Rain Plans in 2014, adding psychedelic textures that found him in new territory. He continued this sound with the also excellent Silver Season, before the grandeur of Lifted, an album that Nash looked to Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for their lavish palette of instruments.

Naturally, after a Pet Sounds effort comes something more stripped down. While Nash’s distinct psych-country sound is still front and center, this record shaves the extravagance while adding a true soul sound.

Topaz finds Nash at his home studio, a converted Quonset hut called Plum Creek Sound, in Dripping Springs, Texas. It’s a proper quarantine album, mostly recorded on his own and co-produced by Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas, with themes of home life, family, and the country's political strain the last few years. Besides Nash and Quesada, there is a small roster of musicians from the surrounding Austin area that lend a hand.

In the opener “Dividing Lines,” Nash sings about his rural surroundings and the growing struggle for neighbors to connect at the most human level. As the track moves from its dusty pedal steel roots into a horn-laden coda, Nash shouts, “I thought it was, the promised land, now get me out of Dixieland, look at the stars, look at the bars, look at me, ma and pa I’m gone, so far gone.” Although the song has been in the works for a few years, it’s still unfortunately timely.

With “Closer,” Nash digs out the harmonica and banjo to write about road life and missing home before returning to the theme of rural struggle on “Down in the Country,” asking, “how long will Sam let it slide”?

There’s a real dreaminess to this album, and “Southern Coasts” is a prime example as Nash incorporates modern synth textures under delayed arpeggios. My favorite of the previously released songs is the relaxed “Canyonheart,” which features a watery organ that hasn’t been heard since Counting Crows and The Wallflowers dominated the airwaves.

The current album cycle usually includes releasing half of the album song by song, and the listener isn’t as interested by the time it’s released. This is not the case with Topaz as the five tracks not previously heard on last year’s EP are just as substantial.

“Stay” is another excellent song about Nash’s disappearing love of touring, and “Indiana” is a stomper with the wealthiest use of the Muscle Shoals-esque horn section.

“Sutherland Springs” is a heartbreaker of a song written about Texas's largest mass shooting, which happened in his neighboring town. You can read Nash’s thoughts on the track here.

The record closes with “Pressure,” a classic protest song in the vein of CSNY. Calling for unity, this song should be great live as I can see a few thousand people shouting the chorus of “put the pressure on the man.”

Israel Nash is often compared to Neil Young but is much more diverse, which I say as a massive Neil Young fan. Topaz is the record that Nash starts to peel away from that sound. He’s done a fantastic job writing songs about timeless themes and using traditional country instruments but updating the sound with modern technology.

This record is a much-needed cleansing that wraps around you like the warmest cobija as you travel amongst the desert flora. I know it will be on my “best of” year-end list.

Topaz is available now on Desert Folklore.

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