167: Louis Cole (A)

Louis Cole in tier list

this music clearly comes from a place of great technical skill, but there’s also a lot of goofiness and fun. There is, I feel, a pretty immediate juxtaposition in which Cole simultaneously gives off vibes of who-gives-a-shit and heartfelt sincerity. I like it. It’s a little extra for me sometimes, but all in all I think he does a pretty decent job of being entertaining and understandable without compromising too much of the complexity he clearly wants. There’re songs that are definitely too crazy for me, songs that are way more simple than I’d expect from somebody making those crazy songs, and songs in between. Often I find these kinds of artists (the ones who really are artists, who are brilliant and a little crazy) are super cool and I admire them a ton but then they don’t actually make music that’s just fun to listen to. But Louis Cole I think does a pretty good job riding that line, I’m impressed.

One thing I think is worth addressing is the overdone comparison to Jacob Collier. I can see where that comes from- both are musical geniuses, multi-instrumentalists, have jazz foundations, and pull from all sorts of different genres. But they’re such different people with such different music with such different vibes. Cole is angry and sad in a way that Collier is not. And more importantly, I think, Cole is more in control of his artistic urges than Collier. Collier has songs that I like more than any song from Cole, he hits higher highs, but he also has stuff that’s just all over the place that I don’t care for, he let’s himself get carried away. Cole is more consistent and more… focused, I think, and I appreciate that a lot. All around happy to give a solid A

RELISTEN1: I don’t quite know how to fit Louis Cole in. He’s so interesting, and I’m so drawn to him. So so strongly, I’m drawn to him so so strongly. He has a solid amount of songs I love, songs that truly truly validate my attraction to him and his music. He has albums that are well put together, that fit the criteria I want from an album and, again, validate the attraction I have to him and his music. He tries so many cool things, and he does a good enough job trying them that I’m more likely to feel an incapacity in my own ability to properly hear and appreciate than I am to feel like the thing was a flop.

But that’s the issue, isn’t it? I still can’t keep up, the cool things he tries still don’t hit for me. I want them to, and I believe maybe they could, but they don’t. The discrepancy between how much I like him as an artist and how easy it is for me to say, “Oh yeah, I like listening to all the stuff he makes” is still so large, and those are both pretty hugely important things to me and how I usually make these rankings. Usually when this happens, when I find a big dissonance in things I like or dislike about or regarding an artist, I throw them into the C range and wait it out. Sometimes time resolves my difficulties, and sometimes I just hold them there indefinitely. I’ve just never had an artist with such a strong dissonance, with such high contrast between the things that are “good” and the things that are “bad”. Or maybe it would be better to call it the things that are “easy” vs the things that are “hard”, in my listening and judging. 

This relisten was inspired by three things. One, this feeling of restlessness I have with ranking Cole in general. Two, my almost immediate regret of putting KNOWER above Louis Cole. Three, Cole’s new album, nothing. 

It’s hard for me to describe why I like the new album, nothing, as much as I do. I think in a lot of ways it’s pretty comparable to Time and Quality Over Opinion as far as poetic value, album structure, individual songs I like, instrumental pieces I like, ideas that make me thing, etc. It’s not wildly different in those respects. Something about it is bigger though, is grander. It’s recorded with a live orchestra, and I think that genuinely makes a difference in the impact that I feel from the instumental sections. And something about the work as a single unit feels unified to me in a way that Time and Quality Over Opinion don’t, not quite. Quality Over Opinion is closer, but still not quite. Or maybe I just want to like it, so I’m making up reasons. Either way, the truth stands that for whatever reason I do want to like it.

I think listening to the new album, and articulating these thoughts and feelings about it to myself, was actually hugely helpful because in a large sense they’re the thoughts and feelings I have about Louis Cole as an artist. I know a lot of the things I like about him. I know that those are things that aren’t themselves unique things. I also know, I can feel, that something about him is unique, that there’s something I’m being pulled to. The fact that I feel a need to make up reasons to like him is indicative of something I can feel even if I don’t know exactly what I’m feeling. 

I almost thought all of this and then wrote all of this and then decided not to readjust Cole’s ranking at all. Almost, but not quite. What I’m gonna do instead is put him up at the top of A. I still have too many reservations to let him through to A+, but he’s also one of the artists that I think is most significant and impactful to me. I occupies such a substantial amount of space in my mind and I have to represent that somehow. So, top of A I think is a good compromise, it feels appropriately symbolic of the right kind of thing. I’m a Louis Cole fan