Jim O’Rourke - Hotel Blue

Music 4 years ago

Jim O’Rourke - Hotel Blue

Jim O’Rourk The title Simple Songs as a banner to tack across a set of deeply quixotic music.

The album’s often difficult, sometimes purposefully stodgy, with O’Rourke carrying a newly gruff voice that bears a sailor’s bark, sometimes recalling unlikely figures like British bawler Joe Cocker.

If it shares a singular trait with the other "pop" albums he’s made for Drag City, it’s in its complete removal from time and space—now, as then,

This music exists in a vacuum, the result of a rare vision, moving from weathered to cozy, pushing and pulling horns and strings into places only O’Rourke can fathom.