Chris Cohen – 'Overgrown Path' review
San Franciscan Chris Cohen is one of those play-anything, background-lurking indie journeymen who, despite probably collaborating with all of your top five US scratchy guitar bands, is still outranked by a Nottingham Forrest midfielder on Google.
And while Overgrown Path is hardly a bid for the mainstream, the former Deerhoof and Haunted Graffiti member’s first album under his own name is a welcome step from the shadows. Combining bedroom psychedelia with sweetly woozy vocals to form an aesthetic that feels dimly familiar rather than directly derivative, Cohen’s songs are full of unexpected rhythmic turns, elegant melodies and chiming guitar lines imbued with the spirit of Syd Barrett and John Lennon.
While it occasionally veers into tweeness at one end of the spectrum, and the tedium at the other, the majority of Overgrown Path is a gently seductive, rough diamond of a record.
7/10
