Few albums start as triumphantly as Mikal Cronin’s newest: a bracing blast of symphonic epicness set against the Laguna Beach singer/songwriter’s trademark sunny, laid-back style. The soaring violin quartet – as well as the French horn, sax and trumpet – is new for him, or at least way more pronounced. (Also new: he chopped off his long hair.)
It’s hard to say why he decided to go so big on this third album (it might be an attempt to move beyond the psych rock and indie stages he usually frequents), but it works surprisingly well with his ‘verbed-out fuzz rock. Not everything’s changed. His melodies are still impeccable he still arranged and mostly played everything it’s still personal. The autobiographical album focuses on an “alone and adrift” time in Cronin’s life when he left California for school in the Pacific Northwest but intense back pain changed his plans.
Now and then, as on Say, the bigness of the music prevents you from really hearing and feeling the lyrics through the trumpet blasts and huge solos. But then I’ve Been Loved comes along, sounding a bit like the Eagles and touched with seriously melancholy cello, and you sense the gravitas beneath the dizzying crescendos.
Top track: Gold
