“THIS IDEA that I’m not into doing interviews, it’s a weird lie that won’t die,” Cass McCombs says over the phone. “I’ve never said that, and I’ve done hundreds of interviews.” It’s an interesting assertion, given that in 2014 McCombs told the Washington Post, “I don’t really like doing interviews. I think it’s actually the destroyer of music.”
But contradictions like these define much of McCombs’ work, particularly on last month’s Mangy Love. This same discrepant tone flows throughout the record, with hippie mysticism that’s homespun from McCombs’ fiercely intelligent and incisive poetry. Always the style chameleon, Mangy Love is still rooted in his acoustic songwriting, but this time with elements of “Dreamweaver”-esque ’70s soft rock, jazz flute, horn and string arrangements, and the occasional reggae backbeat.