ARTIST: Cotton Jones
TITLE: Paranoid Cocoon
LABEL: Suicide Squeeze
GENRE: Alternative
BITRATE: 182kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 41m total
RELEASE DATE: 2009-01-27
RIP DATE: 2009-01-23

Track List
----------
1.  Up A Tree (Went This Heart I     3:48
    Have)
2.  Gotta Cheer Up                   3:12
3.  Some Strange Rain                4:03
4.  Gone The Bells                   4:14
5.  Photo Summerlude                 2:27
6.  By Morning Light                 5:12
7.  Cotton & Velvet                  3:54
8.  Little Ashtray in the Sun        3:12
9.  Blood Red Sentimental Blues      4:36
10. I Am The Changer                 6:35

Release Notes:

It was a tough blow to Page France fans last year when bandleader Michael Nau
quietly led the band out behind the barn with a shovel and a headstone. Luckily
for us though, he’s back with a new project, and he’s brought along longstanding
PF key contributor Whitney McGraw for the ride. The “new” band, Cotton Jones, is
releasing their first LP, Paranoid Cocoon, early this year, a copy of which I
just managed to swindle out of Suicide Squeeze Records. In yet another early
addition to the 2009 canon of great music (I am still convinced this is going to
be one of the best years for music ever) Paranoid Cocoon sets the bar pretty
high for February through December.

For all intents and purposes, Cotton Jones seems like an older and less cheerful
Page France. Nau’s nasally bawl has lost some of its [CENSORED]ish naïveté, and comes
across as a little more mature but sadder for its lost innocence. “Gone the
Bells’” melancholy country twang makes it immediately apparent that Nau has
“gone through some shit.” The tune feels like it could be the last track played
for all those lost souls crying in their beers at bar close. The song’s lyrical
refrain of “I was looking for your heart/through the flowers in the park” evokes
the kind of images of hopelessness and regret that tend to find their home on
the lonely barstool. In “Gotta Cheer Up Now” it sounds like Nau has done just
the opposite of cheer up, wailing on the edge of despair over a gloomy keyboard
beat. (Incidentally I love sad music so these happen to be two of my favorite
tracks.)

Some of the greatest songwriters in history have been miserable ones (Nick
Drake, Elliott Smith, etc) and in this respect Michael Nau’s pain is our gain.
Though I feel for the guy, I can’t help but admire the anguish he has channeled
into his music. “Up A Tree (Went this Heart I Have)” finds him with a Lee
Hazelwood-esque baritone that isn’t so much full of dread as it is under dread’s
grinding boot heel. Lyrics like “Come the light… through the forest of my
blues/someone I know… had a foot inside my shoe” are evidence that the young
artist is as opaque and allegorical as ever. Though oftentimes people find
Christian allusion in Nau’s words, he denies this intent. If you try hard enough
you can still find these themes, but overall it seems that Nau has reined in
these impulses in his writing. “Cotton and Velvet” is a fantastic example of a
complex and lyrically dense love song, without all the spiritualism that is
often attributed to his work.

By the album’s closer “I Am The Changer,” it doesn’t seem like Nau has yet
achieved the catharsis of his misery. Though like his earlier work, Nau once
again makes himself the main character in his song, his character is still one
who is paralyzed with grief, waiting for the train to come and then declining to
get onboard once it does. In regard to this album you could say that the train
represents happiness, and in this case Nau has steadfastly refused to embrace
it.

I honestly hope for the best for Michael Nau’s personal life. Until it gets
better though, I hope that he continues to channel it into gorgeously sorrowful
music as he has done with Paranoid. Though it may be too early to tell, after a
few listens this record has affected me more than any that Page France ever
released.