Sometimes a band arrives in the MV inbox and they sound so classy, so full of skill, so full of excellent songs that you note them down for review.
That was and is the case with “No Place I Can’t Find You”, but the truly staggering thing about Cold Irons Bound is it’s their third record.
But, look, we are where we are and we can go back for the other two in a bit. The matter at hand is these 11 songs.
And it’s obvious from the very start of “Some Sweet Afternoon” that we are dealing with something from the top draw.
Americana, that’ll be the thing they get called, so we’ll go with it. It harks back to the turn of the millennium, back when bands like Whiskeytown and The Jayhawks ruled, “Conversation” beats with a raggedy rock n roll heart, and when they do something more acoustic they do it superbly. “Woke up inside a crossfire hurricane” sings Mark Adams, on “Campfire Stayaway” and they know, like we all do, because make no mistake, CIB is a band that understands its history.
What is impressive about “….Find You” is the amount of ground it covers. “Hex On You” jangles like The Replacements, that’s followed up by “I Wasn’t Thinking At All” which is the type of thing that their fellow Australian’s You Am I had made their own.
Roughly split between the slow ones like “Arms Go Numb” – the most lugubrious here – and full on rockers like “Temper Down”, they are just as adept at sticking in a pop song. The laid back “All I Think About” deserves to be the sound of summer – or it would be if it didn’t muse: “when it hit me it kicked like a nuclear blast….”
The more anthemic ones like “You Keep Me Out Of My Head” are just as expertly pulled off and by the time the last one, the more expansive “Wildfire” ends (and if ever there was a song that was begging to be on the latest HBO blockbuster it’s this), the only thing you can feel is that you’re listening to something special.
If you knew them already, then hats off, but why didn’t you tell the rest of us? The rest of you, get on this. “No Place I Can’t Find You” is too good to be a best-kept secret.
Rating 8.5/10
REVIEW: COLD IRONS BOUND – NO PLACE I CAN’T FIND YOU (2023)
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