Oh, Cotton Jones, what have you done to me? From the very first moment I heard your track, “Somehow To Keep It Going,” I got chills, relentless chills. Creepy-crawly rivers of numbness trickled over my scalp. I got the shivers, persistent shivers. Yet, I couldn’t – and can’t – stop listening.
Michael Nau and Whitney McGraw, the male/female duo that makes up Cotton Jones, craft haunting songs that feel eerily like summer, despite their southern gothic grit. The band is reminiscent of The Dutchess and the Duke but not as angsty…maybe it’s that Vitamin D they’re privy to, residing in the South versus the Northwest.
The Pajammy Jam of the Day, “Somehow To Keep It Going,” kicks off with a firm and steady bass drum, accented with sparse tambourine. Nau’s lo-fi vocals sit heftily on top of poignant organ chords that keep taking stabs at my heart. But, it might be the chorus of “Come on baby, let the river roll on…” that put me over the edge: it is speaking to me, it is telling me to stop trying to control the uncontrollable, it is taping my big mouth shut.
Relentless chills.
Cotton Jones – Somehow To Keep It Going
We put this one on our Speakers + Summer mix back in June, but as the cherry on top of today’s PJOTD, download:
Cotton Jones – Glorylight and Christie
Tall Hours in the Glowstream is available now on Suicide Squeeze. Go on and get it.