CHRIS COHEN - Paint A Room

Every encounter with Chris Cohen's music is a pleasant brush with a chamber pop that's as psychedelic as it is erudite, yet always understated. Across his solo career, the former Deerhoof member has opted for a decidedly low profile compared to his earlier experiences, losing part of his original audience along the way in favor of a more solid fanbase that appreciates his steady evolution toward an ever more tender and refined musicality.

Cohen's fourth album, "Paint A Room", arrives after five years of silence and a change of label, now Hardly Art, and puts a range of variables into play, from more pronounced forays into jazz – the troubled "Dog's Face", which makes no secret of its honky tonk-style piano – to explicit tributes to the innovative Brazilian musical school whose reference point is Milton Nascimento (the graceful "Wishing Well").

A decidedly ambitious record, "Paint A Room" opens with intriguing crossovers between Burt Bacharach and contemporary post-be-bop. Cohen gives Jeff Parker full freedom over the arrangements of "Damage" and hands the lead voice to Josh Johnson's sax (SML), and the result is striking.

The more attentive listeners won't miss a certain kinship with Stereolab and High Llamas that lingers within these brilliant, seemingly innocuous pop ideas ("Night Or Day") or in captivating melodies tinged with bossa nova and electronics ("Physical Address").

His pop-rocker streak peeks through in charming jangle-pop tinged with saudade (“Sunever”) and other assorted frivolities scattered across the tracks, but it's his fondness for detuned guitars (“Cobb Estate”) and horns in harmonic counterpoint (the title track) that brands the album.

“Paint A Room” is Cohen's most baroque record, but also the one most inclined toward a contamination of outside elements that offer intriguing hints of what's to come, like the ingenious tropicalia that animates “Laughing” or the daring blend of lounge-music and psychedelia on “Randy's Chimes,” a track that wouldn't look out of place in the Ghost Box catalogue. Another delightful chapter in the American musician's discography: bold above all in its lyrics, and refined just enough not to be set aside after a few listens.

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10/03/2025