Cotton Jones - Paranoid Cocoon (2009)

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It was a tough blow to Page France fans last year when bandleader Michael Nau quietly led the band out behind the barn with a shovel and a headstone. Luckily for us though, he’s back with a new project, and he’s brought along longstanding PF key contributor Whitney McGraw for the ride. The “new” band, Cotton Jones, is releasing their first LP, Paranoid Cocoon, early this year, a copy of which I just managed to swindle out of Suicide Squeeze Records. In yet another early addition to the 2009 canon of great music (I am still convinced this is going to be one of the best years for music ever) Paranoid Cocoon sets the bar pretty high for February through December.

For all intents and purposes, Cotton Jones seems like an older and less cheerful Page France. Nau’s nasally bawl has lost some of its childish naïveté, and comes across as a little more mature but sadder for its lost innocence. “Gone the Bells’” melancholy country twang makes it immediately apparent that Nau has “gone through some shit.” The tune feels like it could be the last track played for all those lost souls crying in their beers at bar close. The song’s lyrical refrain of “I was looking for your heart/through the flowers in the park” evokes the kind of images of hopelessness and regret that tend to find their home on the lonely barstool. In “Gotta Cheer Up Now” it sounds like Nau has done just the opposite of cheer up, wailing on the edge of despair over a gloomy keyboard beat. (Incidentally I love sad music so these happen to be two of my favorite tracks.)

Some of the greatest songwriters in history have been miserable ones (Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, etc) and in this respect Michael Nau’s pain is our gain. Though I feel for the guy, I can’t help but admire the anguish he has channeled into his music. “Up A Tree (Went this Heart I Have)” finds him with a Lee Hazelwood-esque baritone that isn’t so much full of dread as it is under dread’s grinding boot heel. Lyrics like “Come the light… through the forest of my blues/someone I know… had a foot inside my shoe” are evidence that the young artist is as opaque and allegorical as ever. Though oftentimes people find Christian allusion in Nau’s words, he denies this intent. If you try hard enough you can still find these themes, but overall it seems that Nau has reined in these impulses in his writing. “Cotton and Velvet” is a fantastic example of a complex and lyrically dense love song, without all the spiritualism that is often attributed to his work.

By the album’s closer “I Am The Changer,” it doesn’t seem like Nau has yet achieved the catharsis of his misery. Though like his earlier work, Nau once again makes himself the main character in his song, his character is still one who is paralyzed with grief, waiting for the train to come and then declining to get onboard once it does. In regard to this album you could say that the train represents happiness, and in this case Nau has steadfastly refused to embrace it.

I honestly hope for the best for Michael Nau’s personal life. Until it gets better though, I hope that he continues to channel it into gorgeously sorrowful music as he has done with Paranoid. Though it may be too early to tell, after a few listens this record has affected me more than any that Page France ever released. CULTUREBULLY