Mackin Carroll – Damascus EP
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| Mackin Carroll - Damascus EP |
Release Date: Out Now
The first thing you need to know
about this EP is that this is solo consumption. Don’t throw this on at a party
and expect it to improve the mood. Now, that’s not to say it’s bad, quite the
opposite. Before the first track was over I could tell this was a beautiful,
heartfelt and honest musician making music for individuals, not the masses all
at once. That first track for example, ‘Ashes On The Bridge’, is a Dylan-esque
lament about a flyover and Carroll’s desire to have his ashes scattered from
said structure when he dies. It contains a morosely strummed acoustic guitar,
Carroll’s rich voice and the occasional accompaniment of a female vocal –
nothing else. The EP was essentially recorded live and raw which only adds to
the honesty and beauty of the piece.
I guess what I’m saying is that
Mackin Carroll could be that illegitimate child that Llewyn Davis sires but
never meets on screen, such is his talent and ability to make a lament feel
like a warm, familiar blanket of regrets. “I hope that I grow old so that I can
see my kid feel better than me”, for instance, is the closing line of ‘Cigarettes
& Fatherhood’ which is a masterful piece of song writing about past and
future regrets and anxieties in the mould of Evan Dando on a really bad day.
The final part of this trio is ‘Sleepwalking’ which heads back to Bob Dylan for
inspiration with its semi-spoken, semi-drawled vocal performance and jittery
guitars. Call it folk, call it Americana, call it singer-songwriting; I just
call it great and possibly the least fake thing to come out of LA…ever.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/mackincarrollmusic/?fref=ts
Listen/Download: https://mackincarroll.bandcamp.com/album/damascus