A throwback to his earlier work, the new album from Cass McCombs is a richly realized epic. The songs here are full of emotion, and embellishments that place them next to the best McCombs material. Interior Live Oak is, for fans of Cass and those new to his work, one of this week's most significant records.
The moody "Priestess" sounds like Daniel Lanois and The War on Drugs, while the catchy "Peace" is more straightforward. Like his peers in Wilco, Cass McCombs has a way of incorporating vaguely Americana flavors into his rock. The results are distinctly of these shores, but with a depth that is rare in the world of Yank indie. In making Interior Live Oak, Cass McCombs, inspired by last year's reissues of his early stuff, went back to old collaborators Jason Quever (Papercuts) and Chris Cohen. Quever plays on a bunch of tracks, Cohen on a few too, though he is one of the engineers on the record. They add flavor here, rendering numbers like "Miss Mabee" with complex embellishments and "Asphodel" with rocking charm, while leaving others, like the fine "Home at Last" more starkly direct. A fine balance between the ornate and the intimate is struck on "I Never Dream About Trains", the lead single here, and a clear highlight.
This is a beast of a record. Cass McCombs is clearly having a flowering of the creative juices and all that, but, speaking as a fan and listener, Interior Live Oak would be even better at a more modest length. Sometimes less is more, and by the time we get to the 7-minute "Lola Montez Danced the Spider Dance", we've already spent more than a three quarters of an hour with Cass McCombs on this record, and there's still nearly 20 minutes to go after that number. The length gives this a sort of ramshackle clearing-out-the-closet feel, which is not always a good vibe for a new album. However, what keeps this listenable is the layered sound. Still, Interior Live Oak works best in segments, and a listener can be forgiven for only dining on certain courses of this audio feast.
Interior Live Oak by Cass McCombs is out now. Details here via Domino, and below.
[Photo: Silvia Grav]