Cory Hanson Albums
Best Album:
Western Cum
Biggest influences:
Blue Oyster Cult, Radiohead, Television, United Stares of America, Syd Barrett, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Donovan, Cowboy Junkies
2016
Unborn Capitalist from Limbo - 71%
Coming from the psych-rock band Wand, guitarist Cory Hanson embarked on his own solo career in 2016 to a pretty stunning effect. The title track announces him as one still stuck in the psychedelic ways of the 1960s like some odd Syd Barrett or maybe even Donavon given his somewhat laid back approach. “Replica” is even better, drifting along with many layered background vocals and a groove that is very addictive. “Garden of Delight” is trying to capture something form the United States of America (the 60’s band) in both name and style, and it succeeds with some magnificent violin melodies.
A short album at only 30 minutes and eight songs, the main issue with the album is it has trouble matching the first three songs, with only “Ordinary People” and “Flu Moon” coming off as good songs with similar ideas. The image Hanson projects is very promising, all we are needing are more great songs.
2021
Pale Horse Rider - 85%
Hanson’s second album is much more fully formed, more confident and better produced. Title track “Pale Horse Rider” is the best song he has done yet, a haunting but friendly tale full of strings, harmonies and a sweet melodic chorus that will stick in your head for days. “Paper Fog” is the drifty opener, similar to the debut album but a fine addition to his song cannon. “Angeles” is a touching tribute to his hometown, “Bird of Paradise” is another pretty good attempt at an atmospheric dirge, and “Limited Hangout” shows him veering more into country rock in a promising way nearly spinning out of control at times. Ditto for the pedal steel driven “Vegas Nights”, another ballad of real power with female background vocals. Alternative rock meets country mixed with psychedelia.
All over the record, the use of arrangement is like a ghostly sort of version of the Flying Burrito Brothers while Cory Hanson’s voice is sweeter almost like Graham Nash. The album Pale Horse Rider makes a real case for the merging of the 1960’s with the modern country styles of the 2020’s. Some songs don’t quite work for me, like the short “Surface to Air” and “Necklace” or his attempt at an epic track with “Another Story from the Center of the Earth” which is harmless but not quite a good song to me- he is making a sort of stab at Built to Spill’s epic guitar journeys. The record closes with “Pigs”, a slow and disturbing number and another ballad that moves the soul in a very unique way. In Reality this record is a minor masterwork which is a little all over the place but what it lacks in coherent content it makes up for by showing a great songwriter transitioning to find his sound.
Best Songs: Pale Horse Rider, Limited Hang Out, Pigs, Vegas Nights
2023
Western Cum - 96%
With this album, Hanson displays both a guitar virtuoso attitude as well as the soul of a 70’s singer songwriter. Opening one-two punch of “Wings” and “Houselfy” set the tone for the album, though it often veers uncontrollably as it goes, which separates Hanson’s work from his contemporaries. Unpredictability does not often apply to country music, a genre that often comes off to me as sort of slight and tame, and it helps that his previous back catalogue (fronting the LA band Wand for much of the 2010’s) shows here. The often insane guitar distortions somehow mix well with the at time loud blurring guitars; the biggest juxtaposition being “Persuasion Architecture”, which I promise is a valid expression of that over used pretentious word! For the most part Western Cum is super accessible and joyous, Hanson’s’ high voice recalls Neil Young or Doug Martsch at their post spaced out, while his guitar playing comes from a different school which at times combines the neurotic school of New Wave acts like Talking Heads at times glorious troubadours like Grateful Dead. The 10 plus minute “Driving Through Heaven” which morphs from sublime road-trip instrumental to a breakdown of country music balladry in the middle, then builds back up to a Television style guitar work out. This is music that mixes genres and slices through conventions.
The three best songs prove Hanson and his band a talent worth cherishing: The Harvest era Neil Young homage of “Ghost Ship” somehow updated to the 2020’s with the most memorable chorus; the bouncing guitar riffs of “Horsebait Sabotage” that recall the best of Blue Oyster Cult (and in a lot of ways, BOC’s random mix of styles fits right here with Hanson’s.); and the touching “Motion Sickness” which is somehow a perfect album closer and sums everything up building to a huge emotional climax with echoes of Thom Yorke fronting a country rock band. Cory Hanson walks that strange line between making great, old fashioned FM radio music but also going out of his way to self-sabotage and test the listener’s courage.
I rarely say this but I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard quite this magical mix of styles before, the great 1970s guitar groups like Thin Lizzy meet the primal distortion of grunge music like Soundgarden and then somehow the complex instrumental virtuosos break down noise rock like Sonic Youth at times, while the basic style of music is country-rock? Somehow it all works though, which makes me hungry for more albums form this amazing songwriter.
Best Songs: Horsebait Sabotage, Ghost Ship, Motion Sickness, Persuasion Architecture
2025
I Love People - 84%
Cory Hanson could play any kind of music really; he is such a talented songwriter and instrumentalist that each song could go in about any direction. That is very rare, and to watch him perform an instrument is to stare in awe. Usually, he switches between guitar (the blistering solo on “Bad Miracles” is but one example) and piano (the heartfelt tribute to “Lou Reed” where he focuses on how good he was at Tai Chi). There is also the sad parable of “Old Policeman” that tells a story you don’t even you are not invested in until it’s too late. For whatever reason, Hanson is stuck on a musical phase right now that mixes a sort of 1970’s singer songwriter and traditional country? Whether this is a conscious choice or not, the results are pretty amazing. See the beautiful “Joker” that seems a tribute to the Steve Miller Band. See the flawless “Texas Weather” that is seriously, one of the best songs I have ever heard, whatever style, telling a sweet tale over an irresistible melody.
“Bad Miracles” carries on just like James Taylor (for better or worse) and perhaps his Santa Claus is Coming BACK to Town” is one joke to far but whatever…..I still enjoy it. Hanson pretends to fit in with these more traditional bastions of music history, but he is always one to exist on the outskirts so he sort of destroys musical traditions too. Perhaps that is the point of the title track "I Love People", a great song that seems crowd friendly on the surface but does contain a bit of malice inside. “On the Rocks” is a perfect old Jimmy Buffet meets “Man Who Sold the World” David Bowie homage that is so obvious you almost forget he is imagining about a member of the KKK (jokingly of course). I’ll be damned if most of the record isn’t some of the best music ever created though. Hanson winks at us while outclassing us musically in about every way. “Watching naked and afraid/ and I am naked and afraid of you…”- yes, exactly.
Best Songs: Texas Weather, Bird on a Swing, On the Rocks, Policeman