REVIEW: Marc Cohn, Burning The Daze (Atlantic)
- Lang Whitaker
When Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett broke up, Lovett's fans (myself included) secretly rejoiced, because we all thought Lyle was at his best when he was heartbroken. Time has proved my thoughts irrelevant, as Lovett has gone on to record even better love songs than ever before. But when someone like Marc Cohn, one of the greatest love song troubadors around, gets divorced, it makes you worry. Will Cohn ever be able to move us again?
From the opening wah-wah guitar lick on Burning The Daze, Marc Cohn lets you know you're a long way away from Memphis. After Cohn's self-titled debut, which featured the classic single "Walking in Memphis", ripped through the Billboard charts in 1991, eventually garnering Cohn the Best New Artist Grammy, Cohn has had a mostly uphill climb. Just two years after the skyrocketing success of Marc Cohn, Cohn's second record, The Rainy Season, peaked on the charts at #64, a largely forgettable follow-up for an artist shouldering such high expectations.
In order to rediscover the sparkle that made Marc Cohn so good and that lacked on The Rainy Season, Cohn did what most of us wish we could do: he took some time off. More specifically, he took 5 years off. When Cohn was finally able to sit back and look at his life after his back-flip into the celebrity pool, he found his personal life springing leaks. His marriage ended, and his children needed a father, so Cohn sat back and lived.
Now, with his personal ship back afloat, Cohn sets sail again on Burning The Daze, a great album from one of the lone remaining male American singer/songwriters. Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, and Lovett aside, there really aren't that many male artists around these days, doing what Cohn does best - singing with soul and confidence. Daze is not as introspective an album as you'd expect, what with Cohn's personal problems being so paramount. Instead, Cohn focuses on metaphorically putting things back together.
The opening track off of Daze, the Al Green colored prodigal son tale "Already Home", preserves Cohn's dusky baritone, perhaps his most memorable chop, and surrounds it with horn stacks, taking Cohn in a totally different direction than anything we've heard from him before.
Cohn also hits the target on songs like "Saints Preserve Us" and the haunting "Girl of Mysterious Sorrow". Ballads, always a showcase for Cohn's strong vocals, again prove fertile. The lovely "Healing Hands", already immortalized on the Dawson's Creek episode where Dawson's parents recapitulated, details the reconciliation of a relationship. Also, "Ellis Island" is a beautiful reminiscience on Cohn's ancestors and their travels and travails.
But perhaps Cohn's most compelling work is found on "Olana", the true story of 19th century American artist Frederic Church, who upon being stricken with arthritis, turned his creative forces towards building a house for his family, a house that came to be known as "Olana", which means "house filled with treasures". Even without knowing the story behind the song, "Olana" stands tall and solidly. With the story in hand, its masterpiece is even more evident; Church's labor even more back-wrenching.
Producer John Leventhal, a frequent Cohn contributor, does an excellent job of shaking things up without spilling anything on the carpet. Leventhal sinks into the background as only he can do, allowing Marc Cohn to be Marc Cohn. While Daze goes heavier on the guitars than past Cohn releases, it retains the piano driven squalor Cohn's music has always sparked from. The only glaring mis-step is the horrid electronic beeping at the beginning of "Lost You in the Canyon", which sounds about as authentic as U2's electronica efforts. Otherwise, Leventhal and Cohn's band do terrific jobs blending into the background and letting Cohn do his multi-instrumental waltz center stage.
While Cohn's personal life may never be the same, and his professional life may never return to the place it once was, Marc Cohn still is has a pretty sweet seat at the big dance. Cohn may never again duplicate the commercial success of Marc Cohn, but that will not make him a failure. The music industry is currently not set up for your Marc Cohn's to have a place to shine. Until Lillith gets over Frasier and allows men on her tour, Cohn really doesn't fit in anywhere. However, as long as Marc Cohn continues to periodically bless us with albums like Burning The Daze, we'll all be just fine.
