Jom Comyn

Crawl

BY Paul BlinovPublished Sep 5, 2019

8
Jom Comyn's music conjures the sensation of weathering a storm. For almost a decade, his albums have passed through sounds like shifting seasons (most often folk and rock or some combination), with Comyn's charcoal-lined baritone acting as a meditative shelter from the inclement elements, external and inner, at work.
 
I Need Love, in 2017, found him exploring myriad genres across 28 tracks, while Crawl finds Comyn working with a more focused palette: its 12 songs don't stray far from an amped-up guitar-folk arrangement. But that simpler array of sounds gets mined for rich, refractive depths here. "Street Sweeper" switches from reflective to commanding as it layers instrumentation around increasingly rapid lyrics, while "Chapel of Chimes" builds its title-evoking soundscape around a hypnotic guitar pattern. "Change Your Mind" offers upbeat, Black Keys-ish crunch-rock that powers along at a steady clip before erupting into a rush of guitar in its final moments.
 
In its shimmering sonics and introspective ruminations, Crawl is an album that invites and rewards close listening: full of mesmerizing facets that reveal themselves with sustained frequency.
(Double Lunch Records)

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