{"id":10438,"date":"2016-11-29T17:46:27","date_gmt":"2016-11-29T17:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=10438"},"modified":"2017-09-11T21:42:01","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T21:42:01","slug":"cass-mccombs-mangly-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2016\/11\/29\/cass-mccombs-mangly-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Cass McCombs – Mangly Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cass\"<\/p>\n

In a time of pre-election bliss when the presidency of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was but a hissing whisper in the night, the ever elusive songwriter Cass McCombs released <\/span>Mangy Love<\/span><\/i>, a socio-politically charged collection of acoustically nomadic tracks.<\/span><\/p>\n

By means of poetic and contemplative lyrics, McCombs offers a narrative on the many choleras that plague modern-day American society (although many of these extend to modern society in general). \u00a0The first track on the album, \u201cBum Bum Bum\u201d, is the most explicit on the matters of racism and bigotry, which are cleverly depicted in both literal and allegorical terms: \u201cThe white dog of the farm still breeds\/ She\u2019s off her leash\/ To tear flesh and teach\u201d. \u00a0Gender inequality, another biggie, is featured in \u201cRun Sister Run\u201d. \u00a0However, where \u201cBum Bum Bum\u201d leaves a rather pessimistic note hanging in the air, \u201cRun Sister Run\u201d ends with some blatantly positive backing from Cass himself: \u201cMy sister\u2019s a Queen, she ain\u2019t no concubine\/ Don\u2019t call my sister no concubine, she is the Mother of Creation\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Confronting some heavy Americana content proves to be no challenge for McCombs, who maintains a consistent low-key sound despite wandering stylistically throughout the entire album. \u00a0Although he is known for his song-writing, the instrumental aspect of <\/span>Mangy Love<\/span><\/i> is done no less skillfully. \u00a0While soft electric guitar is the backbone linking many of the tracks, expect to hear a broad and somewhat eclectic range of sounds \u2013 piano, sax, and heck, even some operatic chanting (\u201cIt\u201d). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In much of the album he stays close to his folky roots, as is the case in \u201cOpposite House\u201d, and \u201cMedusa\u2019s Outhouse\u201d, while brushing the psychedelic front in \u201cLow Flyin\u2019 Bird\u201d and \u201cCry\u201d. \u00a0Listen for the subtle melange of Van Morrison-esque groovy flute and reggae in \u201cLaughter Is The Best Medicine\u201d, and a very (muted) 80\u2019s guitar riff in \u201cIn A Chinese Alley\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are someone who would not have voted for Trump (oops, I means, You-Know-Who) then you need to listen to this album.<\/span><\/p>\n

Margaret Banka<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a time of pre-election bliss when the presidency of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was but a hissing whisper in the night, the ever elusive songwriter Cass McCombs released Mangy Love, a socio-politically charged collection of acoustically nomadic tracks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10789,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10438\/revisions\/10789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}