There's Nothing Better than Drugs and Love

Coma Cinema put together in Blue Suicide an album that originally caught my attention with only a few songs.  Not that I thought that the majority of the fifteen songs were bad - I never felt my customary urge to skip past a track. The songs are short, most clocking in under 3 minutes, and it almost feels like Coma Cinema’s front-man Mat Cothran was trying to stop me from ever feeling the need to hit the next song button.  I'm glad he did, because the appeal of my initial favorites were enough to inspire me back to the album a week later.  The album grew on me.  Now, after countless spins, I am in love with it.

Coma Cinema - Blue Suicide (2011)

Mat doesn’t overstate much.  His emotions are often presented ambiguously, and many times he seems to mutter the lyrics in a way that make me almost wonder if he recorded the song in one take. Instead, he relies on the catchy but not poppy melodies that are just strong enough to grab your attention and make you anticipate their arrival again when you come back to re-listen.  

Standout Track(s) -


Whatevering

The contrast of Mat’s confident voice combined with the mobilizing drums and clapping in the song allow Whatevering to pick me up from whereever previous tracks put me down.  

Tour All Winter

Mat's repetition of “Leave my Head” in the middle of the song croons hauntingly in my mind.

Interesting Note(s) - 

This was Coma Cinema’s third album to come out in a 2 album period, though the band has apparently been around since 2005.  A fourth album came out this year, shortly after the third, but it doesn’t nearly fit in with the previous other three.  In fact, if the short cut style of this album leaves you wanting more, you should definitely check out his first two albums.  And if that leaves you wanting more -- you are probably out of luck.  Mat announced that the band will be bowing out by the end of this year, and their last album likely won’t “see the light of day.”

Get Coma Cinema's Blue Suicide (and other albums) here.

Serenade Beat-tapes

  Cassette City is an album, not a mixtape -- and as most hip-hop full-length albums do, it costs money.  I mention this because I feel like a bit of a hypocrite, because my blog description at the bottom suggests free music will be common in my posts, and I'm starting out with a 0/1 hit-rate.  Still, there will likely be few constants in the blog, and I want that to be clear from the beginning.  Hopefully this first post will help to establish that.

Lushlife - Cassette City (2009)

  So... Cassette City... Old-school hip hop beats comprised heavily of turn-tabled horn sections and screwed-up vocal samples. This isn’t Houston’s chopped and screwed -- but Lush uses the same techniques to mess with the underlying samples and create a musical environment that sounds much more aged than a 2009 release should feel. Combine those beats with a confident and intelligent flow and you get a summer sound that makes me want to find a stoop to post up on and bump his music. The album is designed to be listened to as a whole - not because the songs don’t hold up on their own, but because the songs each line up with the album’s theme in a way that boosts each tracks individual appeal.

Standout Track(s) -
    Until the Sun Dies - Lush turns late 90’s folk singer Beth Orton into a soulful sample once he chops and screws the track.

Interesting Note(s) -
    The most notable credit on the album is Ariel Pink. Seeing as Ariel Pink isn’t well-associated with the hip-hop at all, it is a little fascinating to see him as the most well-known “featuring” credit. The song using him is quite good too, check out:
    In Soft Focus (Feat. Ariel Pink & Elzhi)

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