bradley leland

There have been a handful of incarnations of Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy’s musical vision, if you consider how different their first band Ought sounded from album to album. I love the restlessness of their exploration, and think that Tim Darcy is one of the more worthy and engaging frontmen of the past 15 years. I sometimes reflect on comparisons to other stalwart iconoclastic artist such as David Bowie. COLA is no exception to this legacy, and the biggest surprise with The Gloss is truly that it’s so seamless in picking up where Deep In View left off. It’s a lovely continuation and refinement of their stripped back, economical and sparse sound. COLA are far more measured, on the whole, than Ought - and Darcy seems to have found the best use of his voice in this band as well. It’s somewhat a rarity for a singer to put so much of themselves directly into their lyrics and music, but Darcy has done so to the point where I feel like I know his soul. I don’t, of course, other than the pieces of it he manages to infuse his performances with. Overall, Gloss is a fine installment in these guys body of work, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to what will come next, as they seem to be zeroing in on something refined and personal and imminently interesting with COLA.