★★★★☆
Nick Cave once remarked that sadness is a natural emotion, a psychological state that can only be defined by reference to pleasant times.
Theologians will note that God created light out of dark; one cannot exist without the other.
There is a mixture of dark and light on Cash Savage and The Last Drinks’ new album, One Of Us. The album opens shrouded in darkness with ‘Falling, Landing’, a Leadbelly-ish wander through a vast cerebral space of contemplation, spiked with flashes of awareness. ‘Run With The Dogs’ takes to the hills with a Springsteen-like spring in its step, searching for a better place, if possibly it can be found. ‘Sunday Morning’is the sombre morning after the night before – some of it’s good, and some is probably best seen from the comfort of your bedroom.
The rhetorical enquiry ‘Do You Feel Loved’ breaks from memory into frenetic celebration, ‘My Friend’ is equal parts sincerity, sadness and love and ‘Song For A Funeral’ is so heavy it buckles your shoulders and breaks your heart. Finally, there’s ‘One Of Us’, a multidimensional love song that lays bare the paradox of complementarity and insularity within which we all live our lives: we are all alone, but we’re all in this together. There’s a lot happening on this album, if only you’re prepared to look.
One Of UsbyCash Savage And The Last Drinksis available now through Mistletone/Inertia.
