Like a sweet spring breeze after a long, cruel winter, Wand frontman and purveyor of exquisite Cosmic Americana Cory Hanson has announced his fourth solo album, “I Love People“, will be released on Drag City on July 25th. The first single, ‘Bird on a Swing‘ is out now – you can watch the video for it below. Followers of Cory’s twin arcs as solo singer and Wand member will be intrigued to learn that the line-up here is the same band that recorded last year’s Wand album “Vertigo” with Robbie Cody co-producing behind the desk, Evan Backer playing bass and arranging strings and horns, Evan Burrows on drums and percussion, and Cory on piano, guitars and voices and songs. Here though, it appears that the simmering shades of his past solo works — “Pale Horse Rider“’s quiet horror and the burst of “Western Cum”’s cartoonish, gun-slinger bravado — give way to an ever-more impartial view of life on the ground, tinted in gossamer sepia and other nostalgic tones. Written over the past several years, these songs seem to capture the 70s singer-songwriter in a feedback loop, drawing additional inspiration from the indelible everyman melodies of the American Songbook.
The black-and-white bottle glass music video for the single paints a beautiful picture featuring an FM radio oasis with a hazy mid-tempo smooth groove, strummy acoustics and swooping strings plus a choir harmonising before the lyrics unfold: “I’ve rode on the darkest range / I’ve worked a thousand graveyard hours / I have no blood left in my veins, I gave it all up to the empire.” And any album featuring a track called ‘Lou Reed‘ must be worth investigating.
Hanson’s solo effort “Pale Horse Rider” featured in AUK’s classic Americana Albums feature here and this new one looks and sounds like it could be another wonderful release from this prolific artist. There are no UK tour dates at present, and following the birth last week of his first child, we might be waiting a while. The album can be pre-ordered from this link.
“I Love People” Track List:
1. Bird on a Swing
2. Joker
3. I Love People
4. I Don’t Believe You
5. Santa Claus is Coming Back to Town
6. Lou Reed
7. Final Frontier
8. Texas Weather
9. Bad Miracles
10. Old Policeman
11. On the Rocks
