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a r t i s t :: Cass McCombs
t i t l e :: Humor Risk
d a t e :: 2011-11-08
l a b e l :: Domino Records
g e n r e :: Alternative
s o u r c e :: WEB
b i t r a t e :: 320 kbps avg
e n c o d e r :: LAME
t r a c k s :: 8
p l a y t i m e :: 41:06
s i z e :: 99.26MB
tracklist
1 Love Thine Enemy 3:56
2 The Living Word 5:44
3 The Same Thing 6:12
4 To Every Man His Chimera 5:21
5 Robin Egg Blue 3:41
6 Mystery Mail 7:50
7 Meet Me At The Mannequin Gallery 4:27
8 Mariah 3:55
releasenotes
Say it quickly, eliding the r's that cap the end of the first word and the
beginning of the second, and the title of Cass McCombs' second full-length
this year becomes Humoresque-- a genre of Romantic-period classical music that
favored lyrical, mood-based expressions intended to be funny. As a title,
Humor Risk functions as a sort of riddle, one where the answer comes quickly
but you still feel silly for not getting it earlier. McCombs probably prefers
it that way. In a rare, cagey interview with Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal, he
defended the grim and elegantly dark WIT'S END: "You can't just explain a
joke, can you? Either it isn't funny, or the person just totally missed the
punchline."
To be fair, that record did have a punchline or two buried beneath its
incessant gloom. But McCombs' work has never really been expressively funny,
and by his standards, Humor Risk is something of a laugh riot. There's a
hapless drug deal that ends in murder (reminiscent of Silver Jews'
also-pretty-funny "San Francisco, B.C."), a philosophical discussion on the
nature of beauty in a mannequin factory, and a domestic ghost story that may
or may not compare California to a mythical, fire-breathing creature.
Another topic raised in that interview is McCombs' reclusive nature and his
penchant for personal privacy, which in the Internet age, fairly or not, seems
like an unusual character trait. Since we don't know much about McCombs, save
for his fascination with death and that he's lived as a nomad for most of his
life, it's unclear whether his reservations about giving away personal details
are due to something darker within him, or an intent to lend mystique and
character to an otherwise relatively normal nomadic singer/songwriter type.
Either way, McCombs isn't any more ready to reveal himself on Humor Risk; he
delivers many of the lyrics to "The Living Word", a meditation on personal and
universal spirituality, in a warm half-mutter that requires a lyric book to
truly comprehend what he's saying. Religion is a touchy topic for McCombs, and
here, even when he's embracing a somewhat positive message of universal
existence on "The Living Word" and "The Same Thing", he's reluctant to say too
much.
Sonically, however, Humor Risk is his most straightforward and outgoing record
to date, and the first time he's cranked up the electric guitars and dry drums
since 2007's Dropping the Writ. The album's most upbeat songs chug like poppy
mantras-- if McCombs were into such a thing, opener "Love Thine Enemy" could
comfortably soundtrack some movie or TV commercial-- while the straightforward
beauty contained in other cuts is often designed with tricky simplicity.
There's an easy likability to most of this album, even if McCombs'
ever-present opaqueness seems somewhat superfluous when he's in this zone.
Production-wise, McCombs and frequent collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid have made
the most of this album's piecemeal-recorded nature (recording was spread out
in various homes and studios in California, Chicago, and New Jersey). The
backing vocals on "The Same Thing" are chilly and hair-raising, while "To
Every Man His Chimera", which sounds like a WIT'S END cut with enjoyably hammy
theatricality added for good measure, is interrupted intermittently by distant
voices and barking dogs. Like its creator, Humor Risk just sounds all over the
place. In a certain sense, that's a good thing, as it only takes some homespun
recording trickery to make McCombs seem distant and vaguely in-transit on even
the most hard-driving songs here.
Nonetheless, Humor Risk is a minor work in his growing (and impeccably
consistent) catalog; unlike WIT'S END and 2009's soft-focus career-high
Catacombs, it plays less like an "album" and more like a "collection of
songs," a factor that may make it something of a difficult initial listen.
There are a handful of solid songs on Humor Risk, though, without an outright
dud in the bunch-- and if that represents a disappointment, then in the end,
the joke might be on us.
Band-Url: http://cassmccombs.com
Shop-Url: http://tinyurl.com/7fzjxxp
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