Cass McCombs
Issue #23
PREfection (Monitor/4AD)
By Amber Drea
Published: March 1st, 2005 | 3:53pm
Listening to Cass McCombs’ second full-length album is like being transported to the ’60s via underwater magic carpet, making a quick stop in the ’80s to check out the Smiths. This dark, psychedelic pop is romantic music for anytime of the year; it can warm you in the winter months and cool you in the summer.
Swelling and spacey, “Equinox” begins to cast the spell as McCombs croons barely decipherable lyrics involving the words “testicle” and “smallpox.” The upbeat, organ-laden “Subtraction” continues the incantation with a bouncing bass line á la Iggy Pop’s “Lust For Life.” The heavy, rhythmic pulsing of “Multiple Suns” marches along while “Tourist Woman” combines surf and funk before digressing into a soothingly sweet instrumental interlude. Allusions to religious ritual and classical literature create contemporary fairy tales about desperate mortals stuck in limbo between their desires.
Despite the timeless beauty of his compositions, an emphasis on temporality permeates the record, with lines such as “Dearly Departed / We all return to the soil” and “Who aren’t you today?” Optimism surfaces often, such as in “She’s Still Suffering,” when he sings, “You are in perfect health / Don’t give up on your friends / Don’t give up on yourself.” McCombs’ tender and tumultuous tenor closely resembles Thom Yorke circa 1995 on “Cuckoo” and “All Dreams Come True,” but sounds like a joyous Bob Dylan fronting a bluegrass band on “Bury Mary.”
PREfection would be perfection if it weren’t for the six-minute recording of a piercing car alarm at the end. It’s certainly not the feeling one would expect after 40 minutes of sonic seduction.
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