You will listen intently to A Glorious Mess or you will turn it off entirely. There’s just no acceptable in between. The music is so melodic, well-played and engaging and the lyrics so poetic (in the visionary sense of the word) that the album will not serve as something you half-listen to while you’re doing something else. It demands much, but it rewards greatly. The songs are gems of observation, and the vocals converse rather than proclaim. Aaron Austin and the Bootleg Preachers emerge here as mature, sure-footed artists with something to say that’s said well. Glorious, certainly, but a mess? No way.
Edward Morris, Senior Writer, CMT.com
