By Alec Warkentin
Coma Cinema
Loss Memory
Independent
Loss Memory, the rumoured final album under the “Coma Cinema” moniker from melancholia-wunderkind Mat Cothran, is a pitting and painful goodbye in the best kind of way. At only 25 minutes, Loss Memory burns through its 10 tracks (which are easily some of Cothran’s best ever penned), touching on his personal experiences and transcending genres so effortlessly it’s almost offensive.
“When you get off work / Come by my house / And lay your burden down,” Cothran starts on “Burden,” a beautiful mix of lo-fi bedroom indie, subtle alt-country twang, and deceptive light-heartedness, before diving into what may be the darkest chorus of 2017: “My mom’s gone to California / They got a treatment centre there / My mom had a fucked up childhood / That’s the burden we must bear.”
Loss Memory is full of these little moments where you find yourself singing along without realizing the harrowing emotion that Cothran’s poured into these lyrics. The bright flavour of these dark tracks offers fantastic aural Easter eggs, and Cothran’s delivery puts him at the meeting point between Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo and Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes.
Really, Loss Memory is the best kind of album with which to say goodbye: not so long as to seem masturbatory while remaining personal enough to wrench at the listener’s heartstrings, but with enough mix of heavy and light to make it memorable and endlessly repeatable.
Cue credits at Coma Cinema, you will be missed.
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