Madeline Christy reviews the new record from CJ Solar – Coming My Way.
Labelled as the lovechild of the delta blues and Cajun country, CJ Solar returned with a new EP release this week – blending together his infatuation with songwriting with his passion for a true grit country sound.
As a Baton Rouge native, it’s clear that Solar battles with uprooting his sound away from the swampy styles of Louisiana. ‘Coming My Way’, the title track of the EP, is inundated with fuzzy guitars, whisked with cardiac drums making it ‘raise your red cup’ worthy.
Solar’s mettlesome and gravely vocals roar at the frontline of the track. Solar tends to take a more grainy approach to bro-country song’s – not only with the rowdy opener on this EP, but also on his previous works with Morgan Wallen’s ‘Up Down’ and Mike Ryan’s ‘Damn Good Goodbye’.
The acrobatic intro on ‘Better Memory’ is purely just a gateway to the most pop-country song Solar has ever produced. Its’ colourful landscape brings a vivid image to the song and allows the listener to truly experience his heartbreak through his eyes.
Using the vocal melody of the chorus as the intro melody on the electric guitar in what makes the chorus so easy to learn and remain memorable. The chorus is infectious and sing-a-long ready. I personally find this track bound for chart success.
‘Wild Hair’ is the miry, underground ‘Country Girl, Shake It For Me.’ The planning of the mix is arena wide, and while the flanger delay on the electric guitar creates a psychedelic chasm, Solar’s slick delivery during ‘doing everything to get your way out where you can shake it like you shake it’ contributes a voluptuary value to the six track EP.
Following the heat rendered on ‘Wild Hair’ we’re going to need some ‘Rain’ to cool off. The instrumentation on the song is gentle with a thunderous chorus. The track has a more, straightforward sound than any of the other tracks on the release, and is the closest form of a ballad that listeners with get from the Southern rock artist. The chorus rings out a sense of urgency as Solar cries out ‘rain, dripping off a midnight kiss’.
While ‘She’ll Run’ carries the same factor of a rip-roaring chorus, the story of an unsteady fear of love is one coveted in dust and has been told and retold so many times – Lee Brice’s ‘Hard To Love’ and Eric Paslay’s ‘She Don’t Love You’.
A gloomy story of heartbreak interfaces with a bright texture woven from acoustic guitar and Louisiana Church organ on ‘Watered Down Whiskey’. It’s a tale of incomparable love and Solar’s choice to close the EP with such a crestfallen track shifts the artist’s reputation of bad-ass rock star, towards a more, well rounded character and next level story teller.
C.J Solar’s ‘Coming Your Way’ is a prism of emotions, high and low. The group of works pulls Solar out of the small pond of bro-country co-writers into an ocean of potential mainstream stardom with catchy choruses and gutsy ballads.
Editor’s Picks
Rain
Better Memory
Coming My Way
