Richard Edwards - Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset (2017) [Official Digital Download 24-bit/96kHz]

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Richard Edwards - Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset (2017) [Official Digital Download 24-bit/96kHz]

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Richard Edwards - Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time - 53:14 minutes | 1,21 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

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Richard Edwards - Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset (2017) [Official Digital Download 24-bit/96kHz]

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After releasing Margot's fifth LP, Sling Shot to Heaven, in 2014, Edwards was diagnosed with C. diff, a potentially life-threatening infection that led to sudden weight loss, the cancellation of a sold-out tour, and abdominal surgery. During the ordeal, he and his wife also divorced, and Edwards tossed material he'd been working on, opting to start from scratch. A very personal album, Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset addresses the aftermath of those events, and, with the aid of producer Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Cass McCombs), does so with an elegant, twilight-hued tone, as evoked by the record's title. While the album avoids sinking into a bleaker atmosphere, it does offer weighty emotional rawness. Inflected with jazzy blues and an impulsive, sometimes dissonant saxophone, "Disappeared Planets," for instance, asks "What the hell am I supposed to be/If you don't need me," adding "There's been absence/Like losin' a planet." Also contributing to its sense of authenticity are passages of field recordings, including conversation ("[chakra khan]"), and a transient female presence also provided by multiple guest backing vocalists, including Jenny O. With a couple of sparser exceptions, rich full-band arrangements and Edwards' way with a pretty melody engage aside from the lyrical content, though wistful chords and warm palettes that blend synths, strings, and guitar twang only reinforce the sentiments. For those who can handle the heartache, it's a lovely album, one that's bound to be, for some, intensely relatable.