It is an interesting mix, almost as Joni Mitchell, Captain Beefheart, The Beach Boys, and Harry Nilsson would have gathered in a Laurell Canyon Ranch, sipping some weed tea, to define this sort of new classicism of the West Coast Sound.
It seems that the restless talents of Michael Collins has decided, after the pop dazed realized with the monikers Run DMT and Salvia Plath and the eccentrically surreal funk of Silk Rhodes, to catch, even in a rather oblique key, the dominant feeling of the West Coast early ’70s.
All songs are written by Michael Collins except “Easy To Forget” (co-written with Ariel Pink and Alexander Brettin), “Suddenly” (co-written with Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering), “The End of Comedy” (co-written with Charles free) and “Theme For Alexander” (co-written with Benjamin Brown).
Collins seems more focused on this project than in the previous experiences, defining more precisely the profile of the philosophical center of work, that seems magically to balance the refinements of Carole King swaying on Burt Bacharach-esque orchestrations, cool jazz flirting with the white jazz, soft rock and Steely Dan, all artfully scarred by elements of Ariel Pink and Mac DeMarco’s Band who participated in the recording sessions.
Therefore, a greater clarity in this work, the feeling that Collins has defined the goal to reach and has striven to attain it in a lucid way, although he has maintained a certain playful and sarcastic vein, which resurfaces in headlines like “Bong Voyage” “One Hitter Wonders”, and “Get Ripped or Die Trying”.
It is a haunting album, who knows how to kidnap the most casual listener, full of melodies that can spill over into abstract territory and then take psychedelic effect and look tired and lazy drifts in psychotropic dreams.
I wonder if the title “The End Of The Comedy” is the umpteenth joke to point out that he might cease with the playful and light attitudes to something more involved, or it means that even an unserious songwriter can be in touch with the feelings inside and around him.
Vote: 7,5/10
