Album Review: Paranoid Cocoon by Cotton Jones

Cumberland, MD-based singer/songwriter Michael Nau's first full-length project since placing indie darlings Page France on semi-permanent vacation in 2007 trades much of his previous incarnation's quirky pop leanings for a darker, weepy, reverb-drenched blend of Pacific Northwest, 1960s folk-pop, and Wilco-inspired heartland rock. If Will Oldham had gone the way of "Moondance"-era Van Morrison instead of the Grateful Dead for his metamorphosis into Bonnie "Prince" Billy, it may have sounded something like Cotton Jones' debut long-player. Nau and fellow Page France expatriate Whitney McGraw drape their plain, heartfelt voices around Paranoid Cocoon's ten tracks like a quilt on a smoldering fire, rendering each into a languid curl of smoke that practically begs for a gray, rainy morning, multiple cups of coffee, and a carton of smokes.

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Michael Nau turns the Page to more retro soundCotton Jones is the new-ish project of Michael Nau, who spun out several twee-pop statements as the brains behind Page France until the group called it quits last year. The Cumberland, Md. bandleader had quietly released a trio of EPs and 2008's full-length, The River Strumming, under his new moniker (which was itself shortened from the Cotton Jones Basket Ride).

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