![]() ![]() Western Cum is not shocking or explicit in any way-save for the one lyric about cocaine taped to someone’s balls on “Ghost Ship,” which is pretty funny and harmless-but due to today’s constant churn of media fear-mongering, it sometimes feels like we’re one more pseudo-controversial pop song away from a repeat of the 1985 “porn-rock” hearings. It also feels noteworthy to give an album such a brazen title in a time when conservatives are banning books nationwide and declaring any outward display of sexuality as depraved, while simultaneously obsessing over the genitalia of trans people and yelling at Wendy’s cashiers that the M&M’s mascots aren’t sexy enough anymore. I like to write music that has a more complex truth, because I think that’s just the nature of truth, if that’s even a thing.” “They’ll be like, ‘Oh, there’s this guy making weird Southern rock, science fiction music, and that has cultural currency now’ … Whether it’s these more melancholic, slower ballad-y songs that I do-that I think are the thing that I’m really good at-or these more jubilant, upbeat guitar pieces, my whole thing is trying to be as honest as I can without being too direct. “I feel like if there’s ever gonna be a point where the musical zeitgeist is doing something that I’m doing, it’ll be a catchup thing,” Hanson says. Low-hanging fruit.) But Hanson couldn’t imagine altering his creative process just to fit in with passing trends. There are also recurring images of death, storms, and the sea, which imprint an animalistic ruthlessness on the record-accentuating the American-ness at the heart of this Skynyrd riff-peppered LP.ĭuring a time when classic rock hardly occupies any space in the modern cultural consciousness and critics laud songwriting that vomits an artist’s inner monologues verbatim, releasing an album like Western Cum is, well, somewhat ballsy. Then there’s “Twins,” an offbeat musing on twin biology and a brief nod to the 1988 buddy comedy film of the same name (“What if twins were two connections of a soul? / Like Arnold and DeVito / One egg with two yolks”). “Housefly” is another amusing, dreamlike flip of the script, as an oversized insect swats a human (“Crushed against the door frame / Scabbed into the paint / Panting in the hallway / I limp over to the sink”). ![]() Western Cum opens with “Wings,” which subverts the classic cowboy revenge epic by swapping dueling buckaroos with grudge-bearing angels. Playfulness was largely absent on Pale Horse Rider itself, but it seeped into the heady debauchery of Western Cum, which feels like a humorous wink at country western murder ballads and the whimsical imagination of hallucinatory rock records. Hanson also asked fans to submit blooper videos with the album’s title track playing in the background for an aptly titled campaign, Fail Horse Rider. Hanson recorded a video series titled Limited Hangout, which included performances of Pale Horse Rider songs as well as goofy skits featuring characters like Spotify Man, Muppet Cory, an anthropomorphic keyhole, and an evil podcast host on a mission to make a country-grunge album. His previous solo LP, 2021’s Pale Horse Rider, was more low-key, embracing acoustic balladry and tender lyricism, and its promotion was rather unique. It pairs high-stakes tales of ghosts and murderers with Thin Lizzy-style twin guitar wizardry, and although all of Hanson’s records exude an appreciation for classic rock, you can imagine Beavis and Butthead singing these riffs. Hanson’s forthcoming third solo album Western Cum is among his most surreal works yet. His music is similarly slippery-one minute, throbbing art rock hypnosis devolves into sweltering prog carnage, and the next an Neil Young-esque tearjerker segues into joyful avant-pop à la Deerhunter. “I swallow a broken sound / That burns inside my gut / Cross-eyed, I keep falling / Laughing on my way to you,” Hanson sings on “Lucky’s Sight” from Wand’s latest full-length Laughing Matter, which reads like an ephemeral fever dream. His lyrics filter gnawing desires and fears through raw, impressionistic scenes, inviting listeners to find their own truths in his tangled visions. Best known as the lead singer and guitarist of Los Angeles art rock outfit Wand since 2013, Hanson melds a love of rip-roaring American classic rock with songcraft that’s much more abstract than the average tune on your local Oldies station. ![]() Cory Hanson makes beautifully puzzling music. ![]()
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