Sandgrown
Sometimes it can take a while to get something just right. Jack Cooper, of London’s Ultimate Painting, spent his teen years in the English town of Blackpool, working seaside in the tourism trade alongside beach dwellers of every sort. By the age of 18, he’d bought a four-track to try and make some musical sense of life in a fading tourist town. It wasn’t until years later that it came together as his first solo record, Sandgrown. There’s a listless lo-fi quality that calls to mind long, idle hours at the beach in a raw 1960s folk tone. Some songs have a meditative quality, like “Gynn Square” with its cyclical call and response of meandering guitar and Cooper’s voice, while “A Net,” with its soft, unpolished harmonies, is buoyed by a wobbly upfront guitar. There are other sounds at play as well. “Sandgrown Part 2” has a jazz-influenced rhythm reminiscent of Chicago rockers The Sea and Cake. It may have taken Cooper years, but the album’s proved itself worth the wait.