Brian Cullman
New Year’s Eve
Reviewed by: Geno Thackara
We all need a break once in a while, and come December, at some point you’ll probably also need a holiday from the holidays. It seems Brian Cullman regularly does. Inspired by the memory of a silent Christmas he once spent sojourning alone away from civilization, he decided to try a holiday-themed song without the usual trappings that we hear so insufferably much of at this time of year. As a result, the titular “New Year’s Eve” is a nice fluffy piece of cotton candy (which I mean in a nicer way than that sounds). Cullman dashes off a textbook pastiche of early R-n-B, obvious chord sequences and all, which makes a refreshingly fun moment in this brief whirl through his “dark nightclub of the soul.”
Before getting there, though, the EP spreads on the gloom thick and heavy. The thoughtful “I Know” features drum sounds and reverb levels that make it feel eerily like a minor hit from 1986, after which the lost-love theme makes a perfect segue into the next track. “Minor Love” turns out to be an unexpected bizarro-treatment of the ’50s classic “Bye Bye Love,” which trades the Everly Brothers’ ironic cheer for a dose of overdramatic bleakness. I love a good depressing reinvention, but even I wouldn’t have thought of making this one a reach-for-the-razor-blades moment.
But then we get that fun title track, followed by the minor riffing of “Book of Sleep.” This one groovingly evokes Talking Heads at their peak of new-wave glory and benefits in the guitar department (as just about anything does) from a shot of Vernon Reid. That’s not a bad amount of stuff to pack into a 16-minute interlude among his more deep and worldly full-lengths. In the end New Year’s Eve comes out as a mainly sad affair with a bright shiny surface to distract you with cheer… which, come to think of it, is really a great defining statement of the season after all.
Rating: Listenable
