Highlights: Weight, Shout It Out, Peace Of Mind, Don't Let Me Go
Mikal Cronin is a
longtime collaborator of Ty Segall, and for my money he has revealed himself as
the more talented songwriter of the two. The latter’s onslaught of albums has
become rather exasperating. After all, is there anything more boring than a
garage/psychedelic rock revival album these days? (And that includes you, Floating
Coffin.) At least when you rip off Teenage Fanclub, you are bound to come
up with a few good tunes.
And this basically is
what Mikal Cronin does on his second album. Writes ten pleasant, catchy,
Teenage Fanclub-inspired pop songs that far surpass anything on his rather raw
and fragmented debut two years ago. “Weight” and “Shout It Out” are near
perfect power pop openers, memorable and tastefully distorted, that probably
set the bar a little too high. Not that there is a single less-than-good song
here, but I just fail to find anything exceptional about vocal melodies of
tracks like “Change” or “See It My Way” (terrific guitar work from Mikal,
though). However, I find the violin-fuelled pop rocker “Peace Of Mind” and the
acoustic Elliott Smith-esque ballad “Don’t Let Me Go” absolutely irresistible. As
I do the sweetly orchestrated, piano-based minimalism of the closing “Piano
Mantra”. It rips it up a bit towards the end, but overall this is gently
affecting stuff.
One of those reviews
where you just talk yourself into rating an album higher than you initially
planned. You know that album which you can’t stop listening while driving out
of town on a nice sunny day? Well, MCII
is so much more than that…
7/10
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