Mikal Cronin
MCIII
MERGE
7/10
Mikal Cronin has spent much of his musical career with long and wild hair shaking in front of his face, while standing behind a wall of noise. But over the four-year course of his solo career, the multi-instrumentalist (and Ty Segall collaborator) has focused on parting (and recently cutting) his locks to craft a gentler form of intricate pop-rock with a detailed and distorted outer shell. MCIII continues that endeavor effectively, offering a new set of polished, captivating tunes that are truly quite impressive in scope and tone—particularly on the tracks “Control” and “Made My Mind Up,” which are two of his best songs to date. Lyrically, however, the album is a bit wanting (lots of references to things fading, cloudiness, etc.), and it’s hard not to compare the whole effort to the superior work of his contemporaries. Given the right mood, though, this record really hits the spot.
