Heartmind

Now 20 years into his discography, Cass McCombs tenth album, Heartmind, adopts a surprisingly playful, breezy tone given that it was born from a period of multiple personal losses. Its accompanying lyrics find McCombs at least as sardonic and poignant as ever, as he seems to focus on the human condition and all its contradictions rather than homing in on the personal, at least for the most part. Contributing to its wide-angle character are loose, assured performances from contributors including Wynonna Judd (vocals) and Cactus Moser (lap steel), Shahzad Ismaily (bass), Frank LoCrasto (keys), Joe Russo (drums), Danielle Haim, and Kassa Overall, for an incomplete list. Its likewise patchwork studio crew included Ismaily, McCombs regular Ariel Rechtshaid, Buddy Ross, and Mangy Love (2016) producer Rob Schnapf, who mixed the album. A collective spirit comes through right from the lively first track, "Music Is Blue," one of several entries here to address music itself. Its almost post-punky flavor combines angular, syncopated guitar distortion, a skipping drum rhythm, time changes, jazzy breaks, and lyrics about overcommitment, like "Once upon a time/I told myself music was all there was/Like a ghost town in quarantine/No road in, no road out." That song is followed by "Karaoke," whose bittersweet mix of acoustic strumming and sparse, echoing lead guitar lays the groundwork for lyrics about insincere affection ("You sang with genuine emotion/Or so it did seem"). That song also makes wordplay of classic song titles. Literary references abound on the country-tinged, more melancholy "Unproud Warrior," and he returns to music life -- this time as a fan -- on the playful harmony-vocal tune "A Blue, Blue Band" ("You feel a release in your body from the instant they start"). It features Charlie Burnham on counter-vocals as well as fiddle and mandolin, and Charlotte Greve and Chapin Sister Lily Chapin sing harmonies. Elsewhere, McCombs looks forward to a reset on the bossa-adjacent "New Earth," a contender for the catchiest and warmest selection, despite its wry chorus of "Today is the day after the last day on Earth/Its such a glad day!/After a very bad day." Heartmind closes with an eight-and-half-minute, largely improvised-sounding title track whose second half plays like exit music. In the end, McCombs ultimately delivers one of his catchiest and most uplifting albums to date, while touching on enough various musical styles, improvisation, relaxed melodicism, light hooks, and wit to satisfy fans of most any of his previous work. ~ Marcy Donelson