Mikal Cronin, for the benefit of the uninitiated, specialises in the kind of spiky guitar music personified by Bob Mould on Sugar‘s 1992 long player Copper Blue, but laced with the pop sensibilities of a young Brian Wilson. If you’re looking for an album to soundtrack your summer holiday, I urge you – nay, IMPLORE you – to check out Cronin’s third official full length solo release. It really is that good.
The Californian sets his stall out right from the off with an opening salvo so sharp and winsome that you immediately want to splash out on a convertible and cruise through vast, glorious stretches of America’s open road, top down, sunglasses on while the heat beats unforgivingly on your brow, nary a care in the world.
Well, until you remember you live in Leicester, anyway, and that a battered old Vauxhall Astra will have to suffice, that magnificent road trip in the wilderness now becoming a routine trip to Lidl to buy a bag of onions. But do you know what? It doesn’t matter.
As soon as the soaring strings of ‘Turn Around’ hit you, it’s immediately apparent that MCIII is going to be very special indeed. A buoyant, charming melody complete with a sped up ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ natured keyboard riff, it’s one of the most immediate tunes you’ll hear all year, yet is instantly usurped by the brilliant ‘Made My Mind Up’ which follows. “Just tell me when it hurts”, beseeches Cronin on a bristly, incandescent number, and quite frankly, the answer to that question is “Never”, Mikal, for this is truly music for the soul.
The pounding rhythm – complete with cowbell – of ‘Say‘ is something of a zenith. Urgent, pulsating and ultimately frantic, the song charges by, taking no prisoners, and at this point, it’s easy to overlook the fact that many of Cronin’s lyrics here are actually quite browbeaten with a desperate sense of longing.
It’s not until the equally uptempo ‘Feel Like’ reaches its chorus that you begin to feel the pain. “I feel like I’m dying”, the guitarist laments amidst a deceptively breezy stride that conceals references to ‘nails in my palms’ and honour turning to stone amongst others before we reach the two more downcast moments that make up the album’s centrepiece. ‘I’ve Been Loved’, in particular, is a heart-wrenching attempt to find positivity in the aftermath of a relationship that has clearly recently deteriorated. The inclusion of the cello here is an inspired decision and elevates this piece to its devastating apex.
The second half of MCIII is listed as a mini-song suite. Cronin told me in a recent interview that this was because they relate to a period in his life where he was coming of age and therefore ‘side B’ is something of a concept album. Prog-haters need not worry though – there’s no knob twiddling going on here, just a bunch of fine snapshots from an age where the majority of us are at our most vulnerable. Sometimes they’re furious, punky flashes like the blazing fire of ‘Ready’; sometimes they’re starkly beautiful, like the beguiling ‘Different‘; and on other occasions – see ‘Control’ or ‘Circle‘ for example – we’re just hit with some of the most brightly infectious melodies since the turn of the millennium.
An outstanding achievement. Mikal Cronin, take a bow.
[Rating:4.5]
MCIII will be released on 4th May 2015 through Merge Records
