Even before the needle drops on Cory Hanson’s fourth solo album, I Love People, a clue to the tone of the record can be found in the album art. The album title is presented in scare quotes, suggesting that the sentiment may not be held by our protagonist, and Hanson’s face is depicted within rifle crosshairs. Sonically, it’s a hairpin turn in a different direction from his last album, Western Cum, which I described in my Dusted review as “an unapologetic, balls-out rock record with its tongue firmly in its cheek.” Though shot through with a similarly playful sense of humor, the sound of I Love People is more middle-of-the-road, favoring breezy country-rock and syrupy piano-and-strings ballads. The only points when Hanson wields his six-string with vigor are the sizzling guitar solo on “Band Miracles,” and the tasteful licks deployed on gorgeous single and album opener, “Bird on a Swing.”
“Joker” feels like a nod to the smooth yacht-rock of Steely Dan’s Gaucho, with its harmonized saxophones and louche swagger. Then, on the title track, Hanson veers more towards the comedic style of Ween as the horn section punctuates the lyrics with flatulent parps, the song ending with a smattering of sarcastic applause. The title of “Santa Claus Is Coming Back to Town” suggests an interpolation of the Christmas classic “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” with Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town,” which might have proved an over-the-top but entertaining prospect, but the slow, swaying results are a little too schmaltzy and on-the-nose.
The characters that pop up throughout the album suggest no one in the American landscape can escape the tragic gravity of either history or the modern condition. “Final Frontier” makes an explicit reference to colonial violence (“They hang you upside-down by your dick / And bleed you out just like a stuck pig”), “Texas Weather” is a straight-up country rocker with nimble fiddle and duelling acoustic guitar parts, while “Old Policeman” paints a sad picture of an aging cop, “searching PornHub on his phone.”
I Love People is over-the-top in a completely different way to Western Cum. It’s less freewheeling, and leaves an uncomfortable feeling, like a Todd Solondz movie soundtracked by Randy Newman.
This is Cory Hanson from the band Wand. I think they’re great! And their new album is out on Drag City, a label I love. Cory’s from LA, so we talk about the culture out here, what it was like growing up in the “performative laid backness” of the West Coast, and a lot more. All on Beginnings tomorrow!
