Cullen Omori – New Misery (2016)

Cullen Omori – New Misery

When Smith Westerns announced in 2014 that they were going a “hiatus,” The modestly beloved indie rock band’s demise was written on the wall. After a year and a half of relative silence, lead singer Cullen Omori announced his first solo album while former guitarist Max Kakacek and drummer Julien Ehrlich formed a new band, Whitney. In typical fashion music criticism was forced to make a decision, “which of these artists embodied the critical appeal that resulted in Smith Westerns’ success?” When New Misery and Light Upon the Lake were released in the Spring of 2016, it was clear that Whitney’s new sunny California rock was the winner. Omori had continued in the Smith Westerns' fashion contributing an album of enormously catchy earworms with tasteful off-kilter panache. But unlike his previous work, this album is even stronger, the sound of a creative eschewing the weight holding him back and writing a would- be classic. The songs are clearer, softer and more easily digestible. Tracks like “Two Kinds” and “Cinnamon” are as catchy as any song Smith Westerns ever wrote and Omori carries with him a confidence only a more mature songwriter can extend to their audience. On its release New Misery didn’t make any waves, and to make matters worse, Whitney had been chosen as Chicago's new critical darlings, touring relentlessly behind Light Upon the Lake for the next three years. That album is great, but this one is too.

~8.5

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