Music Review // Cos "Grace"

https://open.spotify.com/album/6QUqmDu98SAWKkaaV0vhD9?si=1ZNG-tlARruUMbz9t_sxbg&nd=1

The musical sound of Cos ranges from easy listening to hard rock on the verge of metal.  "Grace" is an album that is nearly an hour long so there is a lot to process here over the various songs.   It can feel like a lot at times as well- so maybe in some ways it is best to break this one up into sections to listen to it.  In the days of records and cassettes, this would be the perfect idea of having two sides so you could feel that sense of a break at some point.

While the first few notes of this entire album sounds like the theme song to Barney, pianos and mood synths come in before the vocals and it takes on some form of ELP / Waking Ashland.  In some ways, this first song also feels like it could be gospel and before the end there are notes which can be heard that make the melody of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" (which is perhaps more intentional than the Barney opening)

"Gina" feels like electronic rock and that's not a bad thing, but when we hit the third song- "Younger Man"- I feel some trouble.   The song is about one person leaving another for someone younger.  This probably does happen a lot but the song takes on a certain level of cringe with lines like: "When I was young you rode me just like a horse / Now that I've mellowed it's please get lost".  The implication here is that he is old and so is his partner but now she is going for the younger man and that just doesn't seem right to me in a legal sense.

Big pianos come through on "Grace" while "Resurrection, Pt. 1" has that big metal Led Zeppelin feel about it.  "Resurrection, Pt. 2" carries those pianos but adds in the singing.  Though it isn't in quite the same way as before, "Salt Hay" just has this strange way about it because of the melody and the idea of someone putting salt hay in their garden.  Maybe it's an expression I'm not familiar with but it just seems like such an odd way to choose to present the song..

The bass and percussion lead on "Sweet Surrender" and the rest of the album sails along in this rock way that doesn't get too threatening.  Musically this album is quite good but it can become somewhat overwhelming because of the weight of the whole thing.  I'm also still kind of taken back by the song "Younger Man", which gives me predatory vibes, and so I hope that doesn't put others off from listening to this but perhaps someone should have told Cos to either word it differently or omit from the album altogether.