steering clear of the mainstream
since 2001

june 2010

review
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info opinion

Willie Herath

"Cohgie Never Landed" CD

self-released

Genre: singer / songwriter, pop

June 2008

Singer/songwriter music is certainly a mixed bag, and there is a lot of mediocre material out there. Willie Herath's music revels in a Jack Johnson acoustic vibe, which makes for inoffensive pop that I imagine many people really dig. However, an album like Cohgie Never Landed is too lacking in edge and originality to really appeal to me on a deep level. I will congratulate this album's production, as well as Herath's serviceable songwriting and performing talents. Still, despite the amount of emotion and energy that was expended on ballads like "Something's Broken" and "Back & Forth", the songs themselves end up sounding stale and contrived more often than not. From a pop music perspective, the standout on this record is certainly the infectious "Drive". "Come Home," meanwhile, has an effective melody but is sloppy and moany in presentation. Sadly, the rest of the music on here varies from mildly interesting to mildly sad. Cohgie Never Landed can't be criticized for a lack of effort, but with so much great music out there, I'm wondering who or what is spending time listening to Willie Herath...

58%

Fun Fact: Who / what is "Cohgie?"

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 12 tracks, 42:07, distributed by the band, released 2007]