Beginning with his 2000s indie group
Apollo Sunshine and then with his solo bedroom project-turned-collaborative band
Yellowbirds, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist
Sam Cohen has been cultivating a finely tuned brand of sunny throwback indie pop. When
Yellowbirds fizzled out in 2014,
Cohen decided to issue music under his given name, and though
Cool It is a debut, it comes from a seasoned veteran years into sculpting a specific style of both songwriting and production. Among his other band projects,
Cohen's stellar guitar playing and engineering skills have earned him session work on a plethora of big-name records. Both of those skill sets are in full force on
Cool It. Beginning with opening track "Let the Mountain Come to You,"
Cohen merges perfectly placed guitar harmonies and sparkly synth lines into dusty, understated production values that only threaten to lose control with a swell of live drum overdubs intentionally bubbling up near the end. Without directly referencing his idols of the past,
Cohen weaves influences into his tunes deftly, from the
Pacific Ocean Blue-era
Dennis Wilson-isms of "Don't Shoot the Messenger" to
Beatles-y Leslie-treated guitar melodies and lazy
Kinks-like harmonies on "Last Dream." There's just enough weirdness on the album to keep things interesting, too, with bursts of tape echo or unfriendly synthesizer tones showing up out of nowhere on tunes that were sounding like
George Harrison outtakes seconds before. These elements are all at play on "Kepler 62," a homespun tune that evokes the wandering, rough playing style of Neil Young & Crazy Horse, as well as the storytelling songwriting of
Cohen's contemporary
Cass McCombs. The album strolls by in a warm amble, with unexpected but subtle production moves bolstering
Cohen's thoughtfully constructed but still easy-going tunes. ~ Fred Thomas