[rating=7.00]
Cass McCombs has been busier than ever over the last decade and especially so within the past few years, releasing two albums in 2011 and a double LP in 2013. Needless to say, the sheer volume of songwriting that has gone into his impressive body of work from 2003 to 2014 has yielded a plethora of leftovers in the form of B-sides and never before released tracks. Now McCombs has neatly compiled them all in a new collection titled A Folk Set Apart: Rarities, B-Sides & Space Junk, Etc, and self-deprecating name aside, there are many gems offered up. And though traditionally albums like this appeal most to an already devoted fan base, A Folk Set Apart succeeds in providing a solid taste of McCombs’ sound to less familiar listeners. Not to mention, it features collaborations with many beloved names in music including Mike Gordon and Joe Russo.
McCombs’ aesthetic often lives in the grey space between earthy alt-country and quiet, ethereal, dark folk. There is a gauzy fantasy element to his sound that gives it an otherworldly, spaced out coolness. What makes A Folk Set Apart so interesting is the way it exhibits that in the context of a different set of sounds, like fuzzy garage rock (“I Cannot Lie”) and rowdy psych-rock (“Oatmeal”).
Though it is a mixed bag of songs, it is cohesive and never feels random or disconnected. Across 19 tracks, we hear McCombs’ edgier side, whether in the sexy electric guitar solo on “Bradley Manning” or in the wacky, experimental half sung-half spoken word paean to the Lonestar State “Texas”, (co-written with Gordon and all at once jarring and bewitching to behold). “Texas” plays out like an improvised, peyote-induced poem, recited on a moonlit trek through a vast prairie. It is wonderfully weird, a la Sonny Smith.
Whether he’s crafting a clever call and repeat between his vocals and his guitar on back woods country foot-stomper “Three Men Sitting on a Hollow Log”, or conjuring sweet Beatles-like retro pop-rock on one of the record’s finest “Evangeline”, McCombs makes a case for why he is an especially important songwriter of our time.
Particularly, “Evangeline” is expertly crafted with simple lyrics, a catchy melody and serious dance floor potential. It has bad boy allure and a fluid, psychedelic rhythm, and features Russo on drums. McCombs can seamlessly transition between genres, but still sound wholly like himself, and what a thrill it is to hear him rocking out.
Considering the moodiness of some of his past releases, it is refreshing to hear McCombs embracing his true punk rock nature in so many of the songs on A Folk Set Apart. In fact, “Space Junk” is an excellently complimentary description of some of the more out-there tracks on the record (“Empty Promises”, “Twins”), and should be coined as a new genre all its own. To be able to bring these songs together in one place for the first time ever is a feat, and McCombs does not waste the opportunity even one bit.
