Columbus, Ohio band Connections is firmly rooted in a tradition of Midwestern indie rock that trades in both shaggy, rough-edged performances and heart-rending melodies. The lo-fi approach of some of their material put them in the same camp as flagship artists of homespun Ohio pop like Guided by Voices, the Amps, Gaunt, My Dad Is Dead, and other 1990s four-track experts. Sixth full-length Cool Change shakes some of the dust off of their production, presenting an ever-so-slightly clearer reading of their sound and filling it ...
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Columbus, Ohio band Connections is firmly rooted in a tradition of Midwestern indie rock that trades in both shaggy, rough-edged performances and heart-rending melodies. The lo-fi approach of some of their material put them in the same camp as flagship artists of homespun Ohio pop like Guided by Voices, the Amps, Gaunt, My Dad Is Dead, and other 1990s four-track experts. Sixth full-length Cool Change shakes some of the dust off of their production, presenting an ever-so-slightly clearer reading of their sound and filling it out with the addition of longtime friend and collaborator J.P. Herrmann on extra guitars and keyboards. They don't change things up too drastically, however. There's still Tobin Sprout-style wistfulness in the charming midtempo malaise of songs like "California Raisin" and "I Confess," and the jaunty "Bird Has Flown" pairs Pollard-esque melodicism with the hip shake of early Kinks albums. Cool Change was purportedly designed as a breakup album even though no actual breakup took place to inspire the songs, and that comes through most in the yearning, R.E.M.-like wails of bummed-out rocker "Lorraine." Hermann's keyboards shine on that song's moody instrumental outro. The album is mostly lively and driving, getting into power pop territory on "It's a Start," and a kind of fizzy, punky style with "Let Me Eat Cake," a track whose carefree guitars and handclaps hint at Connections spending some time with the Lemonheads' poppiest albums. With so many young artists trying to replicate the '90s sound in the 2020s, Connections is a perfect example of a band that never left. Instead of trying to craft an imagined version of a different time from clues left behind, the members of Connections (some of them actively making music since the '90s) keep expanding on the feelings and motivations that they've been turning over since the pre-Internet days of indie rock. It's neither backward-looking nor nostalgic, but simply 12 more great songs that speak to where the band is at present. In this way, Cool Change achieves a regional sort of timelessness, capturing the unique blend of exhaustion, excitement, and muted hope that's intrinsically Midwestern. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi
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