UPC: 045778754625
Label: ANTI
Format: CD
Release Date: August 19, 2022
In stock items ship within 48 hours

1. Music Is Blue2. Karaoke3. New Earth4. Unproud Warrior5. Krakatau6. A Blue, Blue Band7. Belong to Heaven8. Heartmind

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On Heartmind, Cass McCombs enters the double-digit-album phase of his career, a quantitatively rarified place for any songwriter; rarer still,though, is the fact that he does not yet seem to have settled into a qualitative sound or pattern, of singing the same thought twice (or perhapseven once). Songs like Karaoke are a god-level burst of power-pop perfection, as fetching as anything Cass has ever cut. The springy staccato guitar, the vaporized electric keys, the melody seemingly born for singing or clapping or dancing along: Cass triangulates a perch of hisvery own out among The Go-Betweens, The dBs, and The Cure, and vibrates there, a beacon. And then, of course, there is the songs playfulif painful lyrical conceitthe lover who is making all the sacred motions of commitment but whose feelings may be no more deep or real thansomeone simply reading the lyrics for Vision of Love or Stand by Your Man from some crowded bars TV screen.

There are, at least, some basic facts to share about Heartmind, logistical evidence that may in turn shape your own questions: Cass recordedthese songs in multiple sessions on both coasts, in Brooklyn and Burbank. The great Shahzad Ismaily not only cut the staggering UnproudWarrior and four others here but also played lots of bass. Buddy Ross tracked New Earth, a paean of post-humanity renewal with severalsharp wisecracks. Ariel Rechtshaidnow a dozen years into his collaboration with Cass, which began with 2009s CatacombscapturedCass scintillating guitars on Belong to Heaven, a thoughtful consideration of what we all lose when we lose an old friend to the inevitableend. The steadfast Rob Schnapf (who previously produced McCombs ANTI- debut, Mangy Love) mixed and merged it all. Wynonna Judd(yes, that one) offers harmonies, while her beau Cactus Moser provides some lap steel. Joe Russo, Kassa Overall, Danielle Haim, NestorGomez are featured on the album, too.