Cut Worms – Cut Worms (2023) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Cut Worms - Cut Worms (2023) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz] Download

The car windows are down, the air is warm, and the possibilities are boundless. On Cut Worms, the new self-titled album from Brooklyn-based Max Clarke, the singer-songwriter and musician continues his exploration of what he calls “pop essentialism”. Mining the golden hits of yesteryear for a timeless double A-side sound, he contemplates age-old questions through a modern lens. Here, he leaves behind the legendary studio and sought-after producers for a more homegrown approach, working with a cast of gifted friends and collaborators. The result is a compact collection of daydream anthems that live between the summer’s hopeful beginnings and the season’s fleeting end. As opposed to recording the entire album in one chunk at one studio, Clarke varied his methods. Three of the songs were cut from start to finish in his shared rehearsal space. “Don’t Fade Out” and Living Inside” were recorded in Brooklyn by Brian and Michael D’Addario of the Lemon Twigs, who also played piano and bass, respectively, on these two songs. Further basic tracking was done by Rick Spataro (of indie folk band Florist) at his Hudson Valley studio, Onlyness Analog, with contributions from the long standing Cut Worms live band–keyboardist John Andrews, bassist Keven Louis Lareau, and drummer Noah Bond (who played on all three sessions).Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Max Clarke sets the tone of the third Cut Worms album from the very first song, the country-folk highlight “Don’t Fade Out.” Atop a foundation of buoyant piano and easygoing guitars, Clarke expresses anxiety over his insecurities (“Can’t get myself to say the things in my heart/ I always find it never came out/ Like I thought it would be”) and pleads with a significant other to stick with him: “Don’t fade out on me.”

That same heart-on-sleeve vibe, which alternates between sunny optimism (“Let’s Go Out On The Town”) and wishful thinking (“Living Inside”), permeates the rest of the self-titled album. Fittingly, Clarke cloaks this wistfulness in music that often channels the innocence—and country-influenced sound—of ’50s rock ‘n’ roll. But Cut Worms offers many moods, with Clarke offering nods to breezy Hawaiian music (“Is It Magic?”), lush ’70s soft rock (“Too Bad”) and modern indie-pop jangle (the pedal steel-augmented “Ballad of the Texas King”), all delivered in his empathetic, open-hearted tone.

Cut Worms’ cohesion is even more impressive when you consider Clarke recorded the album in three separate places. Some songs came together in his practice space, while his live band was enlisted to track other songs at the studio of Rick Spataro (Florist). However, Cut Worms shines on the tracks with the core members of the Lemon Twigs, Brian and Michael D’Addario. The brothers recorded and performed on “Don’t Fade Out” and “Living Inside”; the latter song’s string-dusted orchestration is especially poignant and illustrates how well the album uses classic flourishes in fresh ways. – Annie Zaleski

Tracklist:

1-1. Cut Worms – Don’t Fade Out (04:11)
1-2. Cut Worms – Take it and Smile (03:56)
1-3. Cut Worms – Ballad of the Texas King (03:03)
1-4. Cut Worms – I’ll Never Make It (05:37)
1-5. Cut Worms – Is it Magic? (03:33)
1-6. Cut Worms – Let’s Go Out On The Town (02:34)
1-7. Cut Worms – Living Inside (03:32)
1-8. Cut Worms – Use Your Love! (Right Now) (03:35)
1-9. Cut Worms – Too Bad (04:46)

Download from FileJoker:

mqs.link_CutW0rmsCutW0rms20232496.rar