Chris Cohen – Painting a Room

In 2008, I wore out Cryptacize’s Dig That Treasure CD, Chris Cohen and Nedelle Torrisi’s theatrical jazz-pop album that included the cheeky “Cosmic Sing-a-Long” music video, with its stop-motion animation of a cowbell. The two brought out the best in each other, whether it was their complementary elementary school-yard-meets-cosmopolitan-art-gallery voices or the art-rock guitars that grace each track. Since then, her smooth, clear voice has been a homecoming of sorts for me, as have her uniquely jazzy compositions.

An introvert, Chris Cohen found an outlet in music from a young age and practices transcendental meditation. On Cryptacize’s debut album, he had all the makings of a musician with ambitions to create a better world. Cohen’s latest record, Paint A Room , his fourth solo album and first with the Hardly Art label, has the same dynamic compositional DNA, but it’s grown up and addresses some of the same universal issues with a more mature sound and poetry.

Whether it’s the opening track, “Damage,” which deals with state violence and “the subtly pervasive habit of denying someone else’s personhood” (“Protect your property / but only life is precious”) or the title track, with its intelligent look at the similarities between housework and love (“Though we keep in touch / the paint dries on the brush”), Cohen digs deeper on each track to try to find a language and a sound for the complicated experience of being a human in a messy post-modern world.

This time around, “Randy’s Chimes” has replaced “Cosmic Sing-a-Long,” and everything is much more imbued with a personal touch and attention to detail. For an artist who has historically built his albums from the ground up, this album is also a much more collaborative effort, recorded only after touring the songs as a group. Whether it’s the jangled pop of “Night or Day” or the jazzy dissonance of “Laughing,” Cohen and his team cover a lot of ground sonically on this album.

A guitarist with indie rock artists, Deerhoof worked for a few years as a producer with the likes of Weyes Blood, Kurt Vile, and Cass McCombs. He’s a fixture on the American indie rock scene. And this album is a warm addition, satisfying both a cursory listen and a deep dive. Its sophisticated jazz vocals, its piercing personal and social commentary, this is an album that demands repeat listening. As he sings on the catchy “Physical Address” toward the end of the album, “Please explain it in your own words.” Chris Cohen has made an album that only he could make, and we’re all the luckier for it.

Order Painting a room by Chris Cohen HERE