Release Date: (July 11, 2000)
Label: Northern Records
Producer: Jeff Anderson/Cush

December Hotel
Overall Rating:  ++++-  

(Crush Me)

The band plays a somewhat dreamy rock not unlike The Surfers or Everything but the Girl. Considering the members involved, it's not hard to see why comparisons to Honey and occasionally to The Lassie Foundation and Mike Knott's work would be in order as well. "Angelica" has a guitar solo very similar to The Lassie Foundation's "She's Long Gone--She's the Coming Sun," and many of the falsetto background vocals hearken to Wayne Everett's work with Starflyer 59 and The Lassie Foundation. The entire record has a feel much like Honey's Lost on You, except that Cush is not a worship album. Whether Knott is singing to his daughter about his wife (as in "Heaven Sent") or about the beauty of a girl named Angelica (in "Angelica"), most of Cush is about relationships with friends and loved ones.

Considering the many people involved, the record is incredibly cohesive. Due mostly to one main vocalist and a rather consistent production throughout, Cush keeps the same ethereal and breathy feel through all the tracks.

The only complaint about the record is that it doesn't really rock hard enough in places. There is not enough diversity in the sound. Considering that the members' bands, like Aunt Bettys, The Prayer Chain, and Fold Zandura, have rocked fans quite a bit in the past, it's hard to see why Cush doesn't here. It is a rather emotional record, but at the same time, the band seems to put a lid on much of the emotion, keeping songs like "Angelica" mid-tempo rockers at best. Mark Kozelek has made a career out of mellow songs with Red House Painters, but the members of Cush haven't. So that aspect of the record is somewhat of a letdown.

-- Smith