R.R. Williams is a lot of things, none of them easily or quickly explained. The songs on his debut LP Unremarkable Lives guide listeners straight into the belly of the beast; American life from the honest-to-God user end. Sometimes the most moving portraits are painted with the simplest of colors. Williams is a straight shooter, and with a poet’s economy of language he dares to ask our most honest questions of the universe. Braiding together Heartland rock, poignant acoustic balladry, and country-tinged folk, he lays bare the urgent matters that haunt the dark and quiet moments: Purpose, Fate, Destiny, Redemption.