Cass McCombs - Humor Risk

Cass McCombs - Second album in 2011 from the critically acclaimed, enigmatic songwriter and deadpan crooner is something of an emotional B-side to April's Wits End, displaying in muted colors a slightly more optimistic, even witty tone than End's downbeat vibe...the stance is less confessional than observational, a theme of WTF resignation with the world and its weary inhabitants imbued with wry humor and a gauzy, near-opaque mystery // Release: Humor Risk (November 8, Domino) // Sounds like: in the hands once again of co-producer Ariel Rechtshaid, McComb's folk-based songs reveal a more rocking heart this time around, fuzzy guitar riffs and a brisk rhythmic stride pushing things forward with rare urgency..."Wits End is like a stew", McCombs tell Pitchfork, "Humor Risk is the raw food diet"...

Quote: "I've been reading a lot of the Tao [Te Ching], and that's where this idea of the equilibrium of relationships came from. People take things a little too personal. I write these songs, and they're experiments with thoughts. That's it. I'm not a teacher." // What we like: McComb's plaintive vocals are the ideal vehicle for Humor Risk's sharply honed lyrical edge...listen how "The Same Thing" evolves immediately from folk strum to new wavey, punchy rocker -- like The Church taking on Marshall Crenshaw..."The Living Word" alone is worth the price of admission, quite possibly be the year's finest slow dance as a sublime melody moves with agile grace over a jumble of goose-bump-enducing guitar lines...

Cass McCombs - "The Living Word" (from Humor Risk)

Cass McCombs - "The Same Thing" (from Humor Risk)

Stream the full Humor Risk album here...