Cordelia’s Dad
What It Is
Kimchee
A surprising turn-around from Cordelia’s Dad, this, who have dragged their bedroom folk to hell and back, and return with what is, essentially, a vital rock album, all lo-fi cowpunk and a straightforward, if fresh-sounding rock approach to the material. Proof, if nothing else, that contemporary folk music has more in common with punk rock than either of them might readily admit to.
Here, Cordelia’s Dad come across like a prime-time Husker Du performing in a slightly more pastoral register, and a song like the beautiful, dreamy “Inhaler” combines the weird with the sweet into a mesmerizing sort of freak-out post-folk rock. Absolutely brilliant. Elsewhere, there is the head-on attack of “Camille’s Not Afraid of the Barn,” thatÃs nothing but heartbreakingly good, and there’s the exhilarating “Brother Judson,” sounding as if Sonic Youth suddenly dropped their pretensions to record some down-home all-out rock (in a weird time-signature, of course). A bit like Pernice Brothers, perhaps, but looser, with more of a band-quality to it, as if the playing itself, the discovery of new worlds as you go along, is at least as important as the rendering of finished melodies and words.
Cordelia’s Dad have made a disturbing but hugely impressive album that sees them adding a whole new approach to their already far-reaching musical horizon. It’s a bold move, but one they emerge from in stylish manner.
Kimchee Records: http://www.kimcheerecords.com
