Mangy Love

Even if McCombs remains impossible to pin down, on Mangy Love, he’s never seemed more intent on making a connection.

For a primer in what went right in the ‘70s prior to punk and hip-hop, you won’t find many LPs as successful at recapturing the diversity of those rich sonic playgrounds as Mangy Love.

The creative zeal McCombs displays on Mangy Love, and his willingness to take some chances, even if low stakes, engages both the heart and the mind.

On Mangy Love, he continues this attentiveness to character creation, draping a new dramatis personae in a billowing glow of soft rock, Philly soul, and cryptic folk.

His latest shows a low-key master at work, and not in a bubble.

Indeed, this is one of those rare albums that reveals a little more with every play.

Those who don't process the lyrics will be missing a lauded part of the McCombs experience, Mangy Love, arguably more than ever, works as a musical expression alone, mixing the sometimes caustic lyrics and roguish indie touches with an overriding smooth '70s veneer. For those who take it all in, the album engages both the intellectual and aural pleasure centers.

At a time when many musicians seem eager to gain currency from identity politics and sociopolitical events, Mangy Love satisfies by being rooted in a nuanced observer’s perspective.

Mangy Love is a terrific, bizarre album made up of familiar parts rearranged into something new, unfamiliar, and offbeat.

Mangy Love sounds like a collaborative affair from an artist who has the keen ability to keep his musical identity sounding completely idiosyncratic.

Mangy Love would succeed even without lyrics. Produced leisurely with Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith) and Dan Horne and featuring 21 extra musicians, this is McCombs’ richest ever recording. Sublime flourishes abound.

Opposite House and It are his most Succinct and affecting work since the near-perfect Wit's End, the album that Mangy Love now replaces as his finest. [Sep 2016, p.98]

There is a wonderful tension on Mangy Love between the pleasure of the music--lush, soulful, spinning out from Elliot Smith or Lambchop--and the often ugly, complex breaks and disturbances in the lyrics. [Sep 2016, p.103]

Though Mangy Love is well constructed, the album at times has a slippery feel, and some of the songs can just slide by without making the impression it seems like they should.

Ultimately, Mangy Love is a lush production that ups its game on every listen. [Aug-Sep 2016, p.73]

The dynamic range of this record, both lyrically and musically, makes it one of his most versatile and assertive releases yet.