Market Junction - Burning Bridges (2020)

Some bands seem to hit the ground running and release albums immediately and consistently. Other bands take a little more time to find their niche. Market Junction is a quartet from Texas that falls into the latter category. Guitarist Justin Lofton said, “It’s taken us nine years to figure out who we are and what direction we want to take our careers.”

That’s actually a good thing for both the band and the fans. On the new album Burning Bridges, the band delivers lyrical depth and beautiful melodies that are well worth the nine years it took them to arrive at this point.

You don’t need a big sample of the album to realize that the lyrics are pretty striking. In the opening track, Matt Parrish sings about what love is and isn’t. He ties the whole message together with the phrase, “Son, love will start once you feel your heart begin to ache.” Frankly, that’s as succinct a description as possible. Even more powerful than that is in “Out of Love” where he sings, “We say I love you because we’re supposed to. It’s what we use to fill the awkward in-between.” The lyrics are powerful enough that you can feel the ache of lost love.

Lost love is just one of the recurring themes on the album. Another is traveling – both the good and the bad sides. Traveling, whether it’s back to home or to someplace you’ve not visited, can be very liberating. On the other hand, travel sometimes provides its own heartache as Parrish sings in “Western Coast,” “I’m all alone on this western coast outta gas.” It is the sort of profound statement that can only be made by someone who has experienced it.

The melodies of these songs are well-crafted. At times, you might hear tones of The Jayhawks. At other times, you might be more reminded of Hellbound Glory. The ache that runs through these melodies is sometimes enhanced by slide guitar and others by a pedal steel. Regardless of the instrumentation, that ache runs through these songs as consistently as Parrish’s smooth and easy vocals.