{"id":44374,"date":"2016-04-16T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T15:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=44374"},"modified":"2016-04-17T14:38:08","modified_gmt":"2016-04-17T19:38:08","slug":"cullen-omori-new-misery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2016\/04\/16\/cullen-omori-new-misery\/","title":{"rendered":"Cullen Omori: New Misery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-44603\" src=\"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/cullen-omori-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"cullen omori\" width=\"270\" height=\"270\" \/>Cullen Omori, the former lead singer of Chicago\u2019s Smith Westerns, is making his solo debut two years after the band declared an indefinite hiatus. In the aftermath of Cullen\u2019s early fame as a prodigy shoegazer with the Smith Westerns, he struggled coping with the possibility that the hiatus could mark the end of his success musically. In an interview for Sub Pop, Omori said \u201cI had this overwhelming feeling that perhaps the apex of my life both as a musician and as an individual would be relegated to five years in my late teens\/early 20s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This period of identity crisis brought out new inspirations and propelled Omori into writing\u00a0<em>New Misery, a<\/em>n album made in reminisce and rebirth. It documents his transformation and journey to becoming a solo act, a conversion where weightless guitar solos exchange for the sorrow reverberations of backing synth lines.\u00a0The beginning of the album boasts a sweeping synthesizer leading into heavily ringing vocals that lie above a constant foundation of organs and high passed guitars. The combination of all this at once is at times too much and a majority of the songs lack in definition.<\/p>\n<p>The washed out and overly dreamy sound make most of the songs not really something that will stick in your head, but there are a few sticks in the mud that throwback to the Smith Westerns.\u00a0In particular, &#8220;Cinnamon&#8221; and &#8220;Sour Silk.&#8221; These tracks are dark, poppy, and as memorable as any Smith Western\u2019s hit. Overall, Cullen\u2019s solo style in <em>New Misery<\/em>\u00a0is a more mature Smith Westerns sound, along with a few unique gems.<br \/>\n<b><br \/>\nRecommended If You Like: Smith Westerns,\u00a0Michael Nau, Cloud Nothings, Surfer Blood<br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Recommended Tracks: 5 (Cinnamon), 1 (No Big Deal), 7 (Sour Silk), 8 (Synthetic Romance)<br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Do Not Play:\u00a0None<br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Written by Kerry Thomas on 04\/15\/16 <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cullen Omori, former lead singer of Chicago\u2019s Smith Westerns, releases his first solo album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7979,"featured_media":44603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3235,3230,181],"tags":[4840,4837,18,2045],"class_list":["post-44374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-music-reviews","category-new-music-rotation","category-rock-rotation","tag-cullen-omori","tag-kerry-thomas","tag-music","tag-smith-westerns"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/cullen-omori-e1460634082217.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7979"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}