Building sophisticated abundances with foundational instrumentation, the post-Ought post-punker’s sophomore cut is a treasure trove of fleecy, dissonant efficiency.

In this modern age, artists and audiences alike are constantly reckoning with resource overload. The increasing deluge of ultra-processed, microwave ready content, while it certainly has its place, has somewhat eclipsed the power of the more back to basics, bare bones composition of the three-piece band. For a three-piece to cut through the noise, the conditions need to be just right, finding that sweet spot of sacred symbiosis where the sheer vastness of the sound transcends its own instrumental limitations. 

Montreal’s Cola have been carefully nourishing this precise type of environment. They have emerged as perhaps one of the most dextrous examples of a band whose deeply entwined chemistry lays the foundation for an understated yet endlessly captivating output. With members Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy rising from the ashes of cult post-punk-cum-indie rock four-piece Ought in the throes of pandemic shitshowery – and teaming up with U.S Girls drummer Evan Cartwright in the process – Cola’s second album ‘The Gloss’ feels like an organic progression for them. Recorded live off the floor, it really is the antithesis of ultra-processed music; a farm-to-table, grass fed musical offering. That is if the grass was made up of fuzzy harmonic tensions and the cows munching on it were verbose, poetic and highly socially aware.

Much like its namesake, ‘The Gloss’ oozes with a polished ease, moving so unobtrusively that it could drape loosely through the ambience of any room without leaving a trace. Making full use of drummer Cartwright’s jazz influences from his years as a session musician in the Montreal scene, on this record he now contributes as an equal songwriter. This likely explains why the use of close harmony and complex harmonic interplay is more central to Cola’s sound here than ever before. This is evidenced right off the bat with opener ‘Tracing Hallmarks’, a slow, chugging number that juxtaposes steely discordant guitar strums against Stidworthy’s ploughing bass. Much of this interplay finds its feet in the recontextualising of harshness, leading each disparate chord on a path to resolution through nimble basslines searching for common ground. ‘Pallor Tricks’ is another example of this. A faster track, it opens with a chromatically pulsing bassline that chews furiously on thick gristly guitar chugs, eventually reaching the mealy centre to find some sort of skewed, satisfying placation at its chorus.

Parallel to this harshness are also many gentler, more consonant moments that instil a sense of balance throughout the record. Central track and first single ‘Keys Down If You Stay’ lopes with softened bristle strokes, blending shifting pastel colours underneath Darcy’s honeyed vocal melodies. Album closer and notable standout track ‘Bitter Melon’ adds yet another hue, introducing a Krautrock inspired air of mystique that feels almost Radiohead adjacent. Also mentioned in the lyrics of this track is the album title itself, “I’m up again, Never was a night owl, Studying, the gloss.” Darcy has stated that this image refers to a fictional text written in the margins of a book, “like the rind of a fruit surrounding something”. 

Lyrically, this album is endlessly rewarding and incredibly smart, said to have been particularly inspired by David Berman of Silver Jews, and upon each fresh inspection of the words, new meanings and interpretation seem to arise. The emotions that inform the vibe of each track sit close to the surface, and they feel considered and chewed over, like the conversation that you have after an argument, where everything starts to make sense. With ‘The Gloss’, Cola find their sweet spot, squeezing every bit of tension out of their instruments and taming it into a beautiful, propulsive grit to get lost in.