A warm, simmering, insightfully beautiful, bittersweet, gently paced, folk-country-pop album by the New Yorker Catskills Mountains-based singer-songwriter, made in collaboration with partner Sam Owens (aka Sam Evian) and including guest appearances from Sufjan Stevens and Clairo. A follow-up to 2019’s Welcome Home, Cohen summarises the album as “about the complexity of connection, the risk and vulnerability of love. The song grapples with the idea that, ultimately, we will never completely know someone.” While her music is coloured by the bucolic beauty of her home, a mid-70s house and barn into a studio and retreat, Flying Cloud Recordings, where the likes of Big Thief and Cass McCombs record sessions, the songs also cover a variety of torn emotions. Mountain, which has echoes of the breezy, lighter feel of Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac, also processes the sudden loss and tragic death of a dear, close friend. “Losing you is a mountain of stillness / a distant star flashes your mischief … Love like that won’t ever end,” she sings, joined by Stevens on backing vocals and Evian on slide guitar solo. Draggin’ meanwhile chugs very catchily along, but points out the absurdity of familial relationships –“they cut the deepest” - with that infectious singalong chorus of “such a drag!”. Another standout, and former Song of the Day Earthstar flickers with gemstone-like beauty, themed on the challenges of whether you really know your lover or not, accompanied by a video by CJ Harvey filmed in the Catskills over the span of a year’s four seasons. These and other songs, including other lovely highlights, the piano-led Una Spiaggia, the funkier Summer Sweat, to the gently plucked Dog Years on the theme of time and existence, all variously explore how life is full of dilemmas, difficulties, mysteries and beauty. Out on Bella Union.
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