Mikal Cronin’s third album is a stunning example of superb songwriting craftsmanship and an obvious attention to detail. Every note, every instrument and every lyric serve a very specific and deliberate purpose. MCIII is sort of made up of two EPs put together, with the first side being a collection of standalone songs and the second side being a concept album ,of sorts, that documents Mikal’s experience in the Pacific Northwest.
MCIII is a natural progression from his first two albums so it’s not surprising to hear less fuzz guitar and more string arrangements. In an interview with Spin, Mikal says, “It’s not just as basic as wanting to add them and then randomly trying to add them in. Throughout the years, if you want to look record by record, I’ve always been interested in different instruments, how they sound, and how they can be used.” It’s important for musicians to grow and evolve their sound. Sometimes evolution won’t be appreciated by their fans, but in the case of Mikal Cronin, it’s exciting to hear him expand and climb to the top of his game. The music scene doesn’t really need another fuzzed out, garage rocker. We’ve got plenty of those already. Cronin’s musical growth and evolution is directly related to coming of age and his building confidence. He says, “Some of these songs, the mellower ones especially, would have been a very extreme thing for me to do years ago, when I was still coming out of garage rock, and wanting to be loud and fucked up.”
Stream Mikal Cronin’s 3rd album, MCIII, before it’s released on iTunes. MCIII is being released by Merge Records on May 4th.
Standout tracks:
#3 Say
#6 i) Alone
#7 ii) Gold
#8 iii) Control
#9 iv) Ready
Listen to ‘ii) Gold’…
Listen to ‘Made My Mind Up’…
Photo by Myles Pettengill
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