Big Wheel And Others
by Cass McCombs

From cestuneblague TOP 100 COMMENTER 08/27/2016 22:59 | #173594

Cass has always seemed to be more interested in the details, capturing all the dust and the grime rather than just looking for a perfect spit and polish. His albums can often feel like one giant newsfeed kept on a continious loop, which obviously has it's more unusual strengths but also some major drawbacks. Often you can get a lot of subtle sounds and unusually alluring songs that you may not find on other works; other times it seems to resemble a giant dumpster fire that's become impossible to contain. While there are many things to admire here, you almost wish he would take his best ideas and run with them, rather than giving near equal weight to his less-intriguing, more tenonous compositions. Predictably this is a frustrating hit and miss record but with some great hooks (Brighter!) and more universal things to say (Joe Murder, Name Written in Water)

From buzzdainer TOP 100 COMMENTER 10/22/2017 19:22 | #199930

In his review of Big Wheel and Others for Pitchfork, Eric Harvey writes, "McCombs mixes light and dark in a similar way. His songs are often cast with an eerie serenity, emanating both from his soft vocals and fondness for guitar-led arrangements that glide between sections. His songs are often very pretty, though always invested with a palpable, if not quite visible, sense of foreboding. This befits the characters of Wheel, most of whom are alone—some desperately so—and seeking redemption, if not simply trying to prove something to themselves." That's an apt summary of McCombs's depiction of the American West, the place I now call home, on this album. It's an ambitious effort, one that succeeds far more often than it fails.