Hiss Golden Messenger: From Country Hai East Cotton – review

Is there something a little too perfect about Hiss Golden Messenger, an alias for singer-songwriter MC Taylor? On this EP, its title redolent of some backwoods utopia, he channels the country blues and old spirituals, but also something a little bit funkier, and sometimes something a little bit more MOR. Perhaps it's no surprise that it was recorded not chez Taylor in North Carolina, but in celebrated studios in San Francisco. None of this is a bad thing, but ultimately it feels a bit more like a work of exquisite connoisseurship rather than a coherent whole. David Bowie is reported to have recently described Taylor's sound as "mystical country ... an eerie yellowing photograph"; but then perhaps Dave doesn't know that that sort of effect is easily achieved these days with an app like Hipstamatic. Still, deeply likable.