Last year Jeffrey Foucault released a download only collaboration with contemporary American poet Lisa Olstein; it started as an exchange of unpublished works and fragments of lines, and ended up in a full-blown collaboration resulting in this exceptional fully formed and full length album.
Pairing Olstein’s often raw and striking imagery with Foucault’s superb delivery was always going to pay dividends, but the difference here is that this is pretty much a classic North American rock album that musically could fit anywhere into past forty years; there are obvious shades of Neil Young in here as he weaves together rock, country, blues and more.
As you’d expect the lyrics are rich and full of twists and turns, and there are some genuinely beautiful songs, including the twisted love song ‘Nothing I Wouldn’t Do (Except Stay)’, the unique ‘Deserter’s Information Centre’, and ‘In Our Own Country’ a slow ballad full of atmosphere.
Already established as one of the most credible and consistent artists on the contemporary American Folk scene, the variety of his work and the contrasts on ‘Cold Satellite’ show that Foucault really is the renaissance man of contemporary American folk.
Track listing
1 Deserter's Information Center
2 Cold Satellite
3 Nothing I Wouldn't Do (Except Stay)
4 Voices Talking
5 Geese Fly By
6 Twice I Left Her
7 Standing Ovation
8 Call Off the Dogs
9 Late Season (Reprise)
10 There I Go
11 Late Season
12 In Our Own Country
review 1 Nov 2011
