Cass McCombs – Catacombs

Poetry and music have always walked hand in hand along the artistic road, often crossing over to one another’s side to moonlight in creative outputs. Jim Morrison crooned lovelorn lines of sorrow, hope and backdoor men while his band played carnival-esque psychedelia, igniting the sixties’ poetic revolution.  Conversely, poets such as Allen Ginsberg would often appear on stage at rock and roll acquaintances’ gigs to deliver his beat-poet address to young rock fans.  The melding of these two creative outputs can elicit both shocking and beautiful results, world-altering moments and truly transcendental experiences.

It therefore comes as a surprise that Cass McCombs’ body of work has been critically lauded for its sense of poetry set to music, as his latest album seems bereft of either of these two concepts.  Lead single and first track is entitled, Dreams Come True Girl.  Seriously.  This sounds like the Bay City Rollers, slowed down to a strolling pace with the word girl repeated more times than a Motley Crue single.  Prima Donna imposes itself on the listener more than any song ever should through a dragging, repeated melody that goes on for two minutes too long; perhaps an ironic self-reflexive nod towards its title, the indulgent tune that doesn’t know when to leave.

Part of the problem is that the songs are all so long; for a folk song that does not go anywhere interesting instrumentally, anything over three and a half minutes is indulgent, unless the lyrics are strong enough to carry the song forward and hold the listener’s attention.  You Saved My Life is actually quite touching, with the attractive refrain, “only angels have wings” accompanied by a heavenly slide guitar, a la Bright Eyes, I’m Wide Awake…-era, yet could easily fade out over a minute before it actually ends.

The album does feature some high points amongst its mediocrity; Don’t Vote‘s ploddingly hypnotic bass line supports McCombs’s gentle musings on the democratic governmental system, “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain,” and could easily have featured on the Rock against Bush or Plea For Peacetours that surrounded the last American Elections.  Nonetheless, throughout the album, any attractive feature is often a pleasant harmony or hummable melody rather than a stunning lyrical verse; McCombs may be channelling Voltaire for all it’s worth, yet the impact of any poetic lines are lost within the bland ether of banality that the music presents.

Country music consistently shows how great lyrics can save average music, while pop music repeatedly proves how great music can rescue the direst of lyrics; unfortunately even within the arts, scientific laws will prevail and if an artist does not choose to shine in either area, the combination of two negatives will rule out the chance for a spark.

David Harfield

(http://www.roomthirteen.com/cd_reviews/9977/Cass_McCombs__Catacombs.html)