03 - Baby Freeze Queen
04 - 40 Watt Solution
05 - Glory Eyes
06 - Monterrey Honey
07 - AMPs Of Sugarland
08 - Panama Slides
09 - Pine Box Builder
10 - Story Of Anna
11 - Condo Lights
12 - Ramon Finds Waterfalls
13 - Waterfalls
14 - Running Coyote Advances
Label: Rainbow Quartz/Laughing Outlaw
The following was borrowed from a review at http://home.iprimus.com.au/laurapalmer/cotton.htm There putting strange things in the water supply down Austin, Texas way if Cotton Mather's second release in anything to go by. From the word go on "Last of the Mohicans", with a rip of feedback and a wailing FX-box, Cotton Mather's psychotic acid rock raises a pretty yet raucous kind of hell. But it's singer Robert Harrison's voice which draws the most attention. Somehow he's channelled John Lennon's spirit and reprocessed it through a Texan sneer, attitude, regret and anxiety wielded as one with hummable harmonies to boot.
There's only so far you can ride on nostalgia though, and thankfully Cotton Mather mix it up enough to avoid falling into the precipice where Oasis have dived before. "Monterray Honey" sees the band expanding from the traditional four piece, using a succulent harmonium rift that drifts across the tune like a blast of nitrous oxide. This is dreamy pop, celebratory yet thoughtful, and sometimes, like in "Pine Box Builder", down right scary, dark undertones rising to the surface.
There is something vaguely unsettling about hearing a band come so close to sounding like a contemporary Beatles, and it may hinder Cotton Mather's progress in the future. For now though it's enough to let this album wash over you. Some records are for thought and depth; others like The Big Picture, you have to just sit back and enjoy the harmonies.
Links:
Pop News
Trouser Press
Encoded at 320K from CD. Includes CD artwork.
Download: The Big Picture
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