Cass McCombs - getting curiouser in enigmatic ‘sins’

If we are to echo Christopher Sherwood’s ‘I’m Camera’ observation of 70-odd years ago, then it’s got to be telescope/satellite dish/phat-wire… But, most art forms appear to be happy to take digi-snaps and that’s more so case in the most popular forms of entertainment. Films and music are full of no-hopers, talent-free wannabe celebs…

It’s been apparent that budding stars do not aspire to anything higher but to entertain the troops seeking the shallowest showbiz thrills, goss and glitz. Sex’s been selling music for far too long with babes of limited singing ability - be it Madonna, Kylie, J-Lo, Britney - trading on their looks rather than quality of music. OK, perhaps Madonna was interesting before turning 30, Kylie attempted ‘art’ on ‘Impossible Princess’ disc that sank like a Titanic…

As always, one human’s sex appeal is another’s pornography but one thing is for sure: there is no quality testing. And how can it be when people have no education, no pointers to cultivate taste, to learn to channel their Attention Deficit’d Disorder into several minutes of concentrating? If you can afford more than that, about 50 minutes, then Cass McCombs’s second album ‘PREfection’ deserves a good listen to.

Following closely on the laser-trail of the debut, ‘A’ (early 2004), Mac continues to offer songs that are darkly beautiful, enigmatic and captivating. ‘PREfection’ is a continuation of ‘A’ without copying its template but taking it deeper, wider, curiouser… With a vox that recalls some veteran American singers such as Roy Orbison.

McCombs world is that of an off-beat, peculiar imagery, intelligent observations, weird and mysterious. Often minimally accompanied, these are the stories that memories are made of but it takes time to peel all, alike in a tryst, its layers off. From the magnificent opener ‘Equinox’, it is a journey into the unknown, that is flanked by ballads, on one side, and upbeat tracks on the other.

‘Equinox’ is joined in by ‘She’s Still Suffering’, ‘Cuckoo’ and ‘City of Brotherly Love’ to chime with romanticism that burns slowly and balanced by more accessible and hit-potential of ‘Tourist Woman’, the euphoric ‘Bury Mary’ and surreal ‘Subtraction’, McCombs is not an emotionalist but can see clearly and realistically: “Dearly departed/We all will return to the soil,” he intones sombrely on ‘Sacred Hearts’.

Cass Macomb’s ‘PREfection’ is a meritorious album by a distinctive voice in the current American songwriting. More power to the man!

8/10