This one is so damn laidback that I almost hate it. Still, it's John Andrews (Woods, Quilt) and I can't anything that a guy from Woods and Quilt is a part of, can I? Cookbook, the new album from John Andrews & The Yawns, out on Friday via Woodsist, is sublime and charming in equal measure. Blending Califorinia AOR from the past with modern indie, Andrews has hit upon a decidedly winning formula here.
"New California Blue" sounds almost exactly as you'd expect it would with a title like that and a player like this, while "River of Doubt" is more complex. This one is part Tiny Tim, part Built to Spill, and still wonderfully unique. Andrews manages to make all of this sound fairly detailed and ornate without simply letting himself dissolve into the prettiness here. When he's good, he's very good, and the material is nearly impossible to dislike.
And while "Easy Going" nearly slides into oblivion it's so much of a whisp of a song, Andrews neatly focuses on sounding as mellow as possible as the arrangement unfurls around him. Cookbook is the kind of record that would work without vocals is what I'm trying to say. And that's not to knock Andrews as a frontman, but to suggest instead that the tunes are strong enough that even if one felt like John's whole vibe here was an affectation, one could still latch onto the simple pleasures of the performances behind him. Fans of artists as disparate as Kevin Ayers and Leon Redbone, for example, can find common ground here behind these lazy hooks. I dig that.
Cookbook is out on Friday via Woodsist.
More details on John Andrews & The Yawns via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: John Andrews & The Yawns Facebook page]