Your reviewer must confess that he rather lost touch with CASS McCOMBS after his wonderful initial pair of albums for 4AD, 'A' and 'PREfection', but his new album 'Catacombs' suggests that a creative sun continues to burn brightly around this quirky Californian.
Although they're quite different in many senses, McCombs often reminds me of The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle. Both of them sup from the fountainheads of Indie, Folk, Pop and Country, yet their communion produces something transcendent and brilliant all their own. And they both seem to do it with a nonchalance that's enviable.
Despite the grisly connotations of the title, 'Catacombs' is clearly a good place for McCombs to be. The recent single 'Dreams Come True Girl' kicks us off and it's richer and more romantic than this writer remembers McCombs being before. The backing is live-sounding and semi-acoustic, with jazzy double bass nipping around, the lead guitar sounding pretty keen and guest Karen Black providing Cass with a sympathetic vocal foil. It's pretty and sincere, but never cloying, which is a great trick to pull off.
This lightness of touch also pervades on tracks such as 'Prima Donna' and the closing 'One Way To Go'. The former has a slightly seat-of-the-pants, first-take spontaneity about it, while 'One Way To Go' finds our hero falling foul of those pesky customs men (“people like us, we can't be beaten down/ we just push off to a friendlier town”) and swings by like a gentle summer breeze. Both of 'em are an absolute delight and even remind me of Jonathan Richman's idiosyncratic innocence.
Not that McCombs has completely parted company with the lure of the darkness, mind. With its' strings, piano and sepulchral pedal steel, 'You Saved My Life's is more typical, fatalistic, country-tinge fare, while the strident, staccato phasing of 'Lionkiller Got Married' (“I wonder why anyone in their right mind would get married these days”) sharply beckons you in and then really ramps up the drama. Perhaps best of all, though, is the gleefully morbid 'Executioner's Song', which casts McCombs as an American Albert Pierrepoint and over an eerie, rolling creep akin to The Velvets, brings us a glorious tale of love and job satisfaction (“I'm a pretty lucky guy...I love you and I love my job”) darker than the deepest sea.
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There's still the occasional moment where he wrong-foots you. 'Jonesy Boy', for example, needs a few listens before its' Beatles-y piano figures, cautious drums and deranged chorus drag you in. Another enigma is 'Don't Vote' which pivots around another supremely nimble bass line and throws us interesting lyrics like “could you imagine this could drag on for another four years?” It begs the question of whether it was written pre or post-Obama, though my hunch is that it was probably penned while Dubya remained in office.
At the final count, though, 'Catacombs' is a strong independent contender with the staying power to knock out the other candidates without kicking up much of a fuss at all. Singer/ songwriters will surely come and go, but Cass McCombs is too good to fall down among the dead men.
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