Overgrown Path is the debut release from Chris Cohen, former Deerhoof guitarist, sometime touring member of Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, and based on the evidence on show here, a man with a keen eye for a bittersweet pop melody. Drawing on the high pitched squall of Deerhoof, as well as the hazy, found-on-a-forgotten-cassette-in-a-shoebox aesthetic of Haunted Graffiti, Cohen serves up nine tasty morsels of understated psych-pop, just in time for the weird inbetween of the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, wherein you can bask in a few minutes of sunlight, kick some leaves around and then inevitably get pissed on shortly after. Similarly, the tunes on here swing between melancholic introspection (Solitude, Heart Beat), and freewheeling buoyancy (Rollercoaster Rider, Optimist High).
Unencumbered by the many other musicians who have passed through the ranks of his other main project The Curtains, and the stylistic compromises that come with playing in a band, Cohen is free to pare things down to the bare essentials and hone in on the particular niche of pop music that his songwriting occupies. Cohen played and recorded everything on the album, and indeed, there is a pleasant aura of lo-fi bedroom experimentation about the whole thing, while never sounding amateurish or clumsy. Cohen’s gentle vocals anchor the songs, remaining unyieldingly temperate no matter how impassioned the music gets. ‘Don’t Look Today’ is perhaps the high point of the record, a gorgeous melding of fuzzy guitar arpeggios, Casiotone organs, and multitracked ‘Ooohs’.
A lovely little grower of a record that deserves your attention, lest it be lost among the more high profile releases of this season.
— Ivan Deasy
