Cass McCombs is a unique kind of artist. He doesn’t involve himself in the press nor does he particularly enjoy the music industry. What he does love, however, is music. This passion has been evident in all of his albums and it’s the outlet he uses to make himself shine in a trade where being subtle is not the name of the game.
He recently released his seventh album, Big Wheel and Others. As a 22-track double-album Cass McCombs fully makes up for his silence since 2011 when he released his last album, Humor Risk. Although this new album takes a great deal of patience to listen to—it’s 85 minutes long—it is definitely worth the time.
As always, McCombs uses his songs as opportunities to captivate his listeners with stories. He invents characters and uses humorous wordplay to tell their tales. As he narrates in his very smooth voice, he keeps the background simple. Often using a pleasing electric guitar, with the proper amount of slide guitar thrown into the mix. Every once in awhile there is a surge of woodwinds, specifically a saxophone, adding variety to the tracks.
Big Wheel and Others is filled with moments of sheer creative genius. The album opens with three major successes: “Big Wheel,” “Angel Blood” and “Morning Star.” These songs welcome the themes of religion, identity and social complexes with open arms. Glimmering tracks like these are mixed in all throughout the album.
All of that said, this album is really long. An hour and a half is a long time to listen to the nomadic sounds of McCombs. Oftentimes these great songs are spread far apart and it is a long listen to very soothing but often dull tracks in between. By and large, it is good to hear from Cass McCombs again and worth the long listen.
Rating B+
