Let’s be clear from the outset….I am no fan of Kings of Leon at all. They have consistently produced that dreadful brand of pop rock that shines at weddings, sports events and young farmers balls. However, this fact matters not. The lead guitarist of said band, who is a founding member and the ‘cousin’, Matthew Followill, has spent a considerable period of time gathering sounds and ideas from times, places and time zones around the world as they tour, and now presents them in an hour and 41 minutes of the phenomenal ‘If We’re Apart, I’m Somewhere Missing You’.
The clever thing about this is each of the 26 tracks feels like it has an anchor, and that anchor is a situation now passed – maybe last month, maybe ten years ago. However, as the title suggests, the psychology of the artist has remained a continuum. This is a wholesome, and hugely personal, archive of feelings and experiences.
Musically, this drifts between eerie and dreamy folktronica, pulsating synths, experimental sound design and tape looping drone-scapes. But let me return to my ‘anchor’ point above. Tracks like ‘Room Song’ simply evoke an unfamiliar, yet cumbersomely familiar, hotel room in yet another city; ‘Morningness’ is the light of another place, most likely somewhere in Japan from the melodies, washing through a window ajar; ‘Soap Opera’ is the act of killing time by watching a soap opera in a completely different language. These are the unseen elements of the touring lifestyle.
What Matthew Followill, under the name CMF, has drawn together here is astonishingly absorbing. These are sketches of the mind and, given the background to the project, form powerful imagery that far transcends that background. This is pure and human. This is a reflection of a floating world (to quote an Elder album title!).
Best Paired With: Being An International Touring Musician, Having A Lot Of Time On Your Hands, and Getting The Window Seat on An Aeroplane.
CMF – If We’re Apart, I’m Somewhere Missing You Is Out Now On Saesori Sounds.
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