ALBUM REVIEW: EDDIE COHN “DYSTOPIAN DAYS”
Dystopian Days is a record you simply can’t get enough of after the first spin. From the album opener “Broken Pieces” to “Kill Silently",” it fills the room with intense, psychedelic visions that make you stay alert and engaged at all times. Eddie Cohen is a perfectionist that manages to fulfill and extends your expectation of a record to every detail, ebbs and flows.
Written during a time of madness in Los Angeles when the world seemed to have gone crazy. Exploring anxiety, raw emotions, and our animalistic nature, the earthy percussion echoes in the background in relation to a dissonant resonance soundscape in the air that fills the space with entrancing, untamed energy that put you in a trance. Dystopian Days is a record that makes you want to turn the volume of your subwoofer all the way up and dance to its monstrous, immersive power.
“I live about 1 half a mile away from where a lot of the rioting took place in LA and it was a really unsettling time,” said Cohn, “When the lockdown happened and the riots and protests happened, all these cultural events brought up some raw emotions. I felt a level of anxiety in the air that I had never felt before. Or maybe the last time I felt this energy in the air was during the Rodney Kind trial or the earthquake in 93. It was a scary time and I felt the only way to get through this emotional roller coaster was to sing and write songs,” said the artist.
Eddie Cohn’s rock-fused vocal gives it an immediate angst-filled, isolated, yet vulnerable vibe to his mesmerizing melodies. From “Freedom” to “Animal,” the three songs serve an intensified sequence that kept you in the groove while introducing more interesting variations. “Freedom” has a folk-rock undertone that sets the mood and prepares you for further development. “Underwater” gives it a slightly eerie vibe with a straightforward head-hitting drumbeat that reminds you of an early PJ Harvey soundscape. “Animal” pushes the atmosphere to the climax with chant-like vocals and layers of strings, and then Cohn regroups and shakes things up with “What Do You Want From Me.”
“I found myself asking some deeper questions and wondered if human beings are not much different than animals. And as hard as we try to control ourselves, to tame ourselves to behave as civilized creatures, is that really even possible? There was a certain level of chaos in the air that was so thick and real, I wondered if we were going to be okay. It's scary to think how quickly human beings can turn into vicious animals and often, this strange world doesn't make much sense. This song tries to capture some of the fear and confusion I felt earlier in the air during the lockdowns and the protests and rioting that took place,” the artist commented on “Animal”
The second half of the album derives into even more fascinating territory. An unevenly grouped syncopation along with the chordal passages reminds you of a natural, unornamented Rite of Spring energy that weaves into chaotic, epic poetry with shimmering strings and choirs. Eddie Cohn concludes Dystopian Days with “Kill Silently,” which seizes you fully, but there’s an urgent desire for the music to keep going.
Written by Katrina Yang
FOLLOW EDDIE COHN
