New York, NY (Top40 Charts) When it comes to having a clear-cut outsider's perspective on the art of heartbreak, Cory Williams is, for better or worse, an aficionado. His Southern drawl mixed with contemporary musical flourishes straight out of Austin,
Texas provide something that modern rock has been sorely missing and Williams brings it back to the forefront in droves with the aid of his earnest approach and overall down to earth mentality that he keeps entirely in both his frontal lobe and the DNA integral to his art.
Returning to the fold with his latest album Bird Mouth, Cory Williams is wearing more than just his heart on his sleeve. The eight tracks contained within the enigmatically titled LP contain heart as much as they contain brains, brawn, and balls. It's all out there on the line as caution is being thrown to the wind, and the wind is happily throwing it all right back at listeners as long as they're down to give up some free time, sit a spell, and listen. Williams is gladly continuing his trek into crafting a unique and ambitious sound all his own with no notion to the exact regions that grant him influence — and audiences can rest assured that there's no breaking this man's stride as soon as Bird Mouth begins.
Album opener "Foolish Reminder" is deceptive in its quiet approach; a soft guitar strums and Williams croons a tale of mistaken love and unforgettable heartache and it seems like all of his tricks are put out on display for listeners… until the song explodes into a bombastic ballad with members out of Band of Heathens providing gorgeous harmonies beneath the gravelly tale of regret, tying a tune that could seem expected when taken at face value into one of the more unexpectedly heartfelt and yearning tracks of the year. "Foolish Reminder" is a standout from Bird Mouth, easily, and it sets the bar so high being the first song on the album that the rest should have a hard time keeping up. Williams has a talent for making the audience play to his whims, though, and by the end of this first piece of the album, it's evident that the musician isn't going to give us anything right down the middle, as much as we think we can see it all coming.
Another song that knocks it out of the park, succeeding beyond an already successful album, comes towards the middle of Bird Mouth within slow-burn road song "Backseat."
APPLE MUSIC: https://music.apple.com/us/album/bird-mouth/1558978447
A lazily danceable tune, it feels like something that you'd hear the house band kick into at a favorite dive bar when you and your old lady are the last ones present and the bartender's ready to close up shop. Williams is adept at crafting cinematic pieces of musicianship within songs that ultimately require very little yet manage to say a whole lot, reaching above and beyond expectations. All in all, Cory Williams has a resounding success on his hands with Bird Mouth. The sophomore slump isn't something worth fearing in this case, and if the trajectory is anything to believe (and it is), the next Cory Williams project will be an even greater success of an album you can love and lose to.
