Discs of the past and future will appeal directly to PCs, with few big surprises. Even at peak intensity—the speed finish of “Prismatic,” the restless mechanics of “Luddite Factory Operator”—Cook's surfaces are varnished, his structures effortless and complex. There's none of the naïveté or delightfully 'wrong' bent of these notable early productions like GFOTY's 'Bobby' or Hannah Diamond's 'Pink and Blue'. This is the work of an established pop producer facing LA. When Charli walks into the room – as she does on 'Lucifer,' a catchy, moody little girl with Addison Rae – the scene comes alive, while tracks rely on highly processed, unintelligible vocals, like Balearic Sun's 'Crescent'. get the weightless quality of a hologram.
That's why Present, where Cook takes the mic, is the surprise standout of the three. Collecting where apple Stopped, these eight songs also take their cue from Thy Slaughter's Soft Rock—Cook's witty collaboration with PC Music oldtimer easyFun—to drive deeper into digitally enhanced fuzz rock. Infused with the wistful melancholy that British comedian Bill Bailey once found in his own country (because “52 percent of our days are cloudy”), Present sits somewhere between opulent bedroom-punk (The Durutti Column, Felt) and red-hot '90s indie ( Teenage Fanclub, the Breeders, late '90s Blur)—and offers some sweet, sweet guitar tones to boot. Our troubadour steps up to the mic, using phone effects and Auto-Tune to boost his incredibly powerful voice, while the guitars quietly-quietly-LOUD power grunge (“Green Man”, “Greatly”) and wailing mini-solos (“Harika where I met you”). Most addictive is “Bewitched,” an egg-punk anthem about Weezer and Ash's children, iced with a pitch-perfect hook (“I heard her say, Abra-abracadabra”) that echoes an old Ian Dury score.
Buried within the lyrics is a sense of distance and loss, from the awkwardly British (“I'll miss you so much”) to the open wound of “Without,” a tribute to SOPHIE's creative twin flame, who died in 2021: A void, a silhouette / I never guessed that the loudest sounds are hollow.” Cook has spent the last few years living in America, including a lockdown in rural Montana, where his girlfriend, the singer Alaska Reed, resides. Feeling foreign inevitably made him more aware of his Britishness and seemingly more willing to play it up – hence the enduring Beatles moping. In place of the playful meta-ironies and commercial sheen of PC Music's world, Cook aligns himself with myth and magic (“Green Man”, “Crone”, “Bewitched”), imbuing his lyrics with talismanic, manuscript value of an apothecary, gargoyles, “skulls on the shelf” and “membranes stacked in the catacombs”.
