Album Review #1
Jesus Christ, I just listened to the first track on Sean Cotton's new album Almaguin Gothic. It is insanely good. So epic...such a quality of "taking it's time" that feels like a lost art. It is too early in the day for whiskey, but I want to crack the bottle and continue.
I can't remember where Sean and I were driving, but I remember, a long while ago, being in his car and playing him what was the new "Who" album from 2007. I remember him saying, "Wow, they still have a lot of ideas". I thought of that as I listened to his new record. It is bursting with ideas! It is so well realized. I mean this as a compliment when I say that I love hearing all of Sean's different influences filtering through his songwriting. It is so great.
Sean is primarily a guitar player so this record made me super curious about the differnt keyboards on the songs. Sean made some really cool choices including a very Mellotron-like string section at one point. In this age of home studios it got me wondering what instruments he actually used, and if he played them himself.
Almaguin Gothic had me really thinking about the balance of "production" and "song" with this album. I know so much of what Sean does is solo performance these days (well, not THESE days, but you know what I mean) and I imagined that it would be easy and perhaps business-wise, advantageous to make records that reflect that. That was part of what I really dug about this album...that he didn't do that. And though the songs come through loud and clear, and it is not hard for me to imagine them stripped down, the record did not just sound like acoustic Folky tunes dressed up. The arrangements felt really central to the vibe of the album. It's like a "real" record! (Haha)
And yes, I heard an I'm On Fire vibe immediately on The Ballad of Old Man McLaren, but I felt that the song went somewhere else, especially on second listen.
I really love how the record starts and ends. I was thinking about even, like, 10 or 15 years ago there would be people telling you not to open an album with a song like The Serpent...you know? That, "If the CD falls into the hands of some CBC person, you want the first 10 seconds to really grab'm!" kind of thing. Well, forget that. The first track just totally sucked me in...like real records used to.
Written by Brad Hart: Writer and actor of the one-man show OH GOD - THE DRUMS