Cass McCombs Dropping the Writ

Words: Rachel Shimp
Label: Domino
XLR8R Rating: 9/10

T.S. Eliot wrote, “I should have been a pair of ragged claws/Scuttling across the floors of silent seas,” and Cass McCombs fans sometimes remark he should’ve become a literary figure rather than the singer-songwriter he is. McCombs has come a long way since 2002’s lo-fi Not the Way EP, and even from his most recent PREfection. Dropping the Writ shows an increased mastery of melancholia and symbolic language, employed in the way Eliot used a religion-and-classics background to comment on the here-and-now. Writ is fleshed out musically with help from Deerhoof and Gang Gang Dance, and lyrically with McCombs’ clearer voice and stronger storytelling. He’s a massively underrated talent who should always dare disturb the universe.