CASEY FOUBERT, EP 1
From the humor of a baby’s “mouth that mumbles milk into gold” to the stark imagery of a “communion’s drowned / the flood came without a sound,” Casey Foubert, who has been a longtime touring and recording musician with the likes of Sufjan Stevens, The Shins, and David Bazan, has put out a record of five songs “about the complicated love of families.” Simply called EP 1, it his attempt to get down songs, up to twenty years in the making, to have something personal to show, as a naturally timid but getting-on-in-years father, husband, and songwriter—who apparently rivals the tried and true acts that he has been performing with.
His lyrics toe the line between almost absurdist metaphor (“Gagged by grief green tongue to my gums”) and genuine sentiment (“And when the baby comes we’ll feed it till it’s fed”), writing songs about not wanting to talk or getting into fights with his wife, the wonder of being a father, and the shyness that he struggles with. Written, played, recorded, produced, and mixed all by himself, at his home, it is an adventurous journey in song craft. His clear, endearing voice finding the perfect playful or somber next note, his instruments (like bells, piano, guitar, and bass), filling in the songs like an indie pocket symphony.