A 'dream come true'

This year, numerous popular indie rock acts, such as Animal Collective, Antony and the Johnsons and Dirty Projectors, successfully abandoned their earlier characteristically obscure styles in favor of simpler, more accessible sounds. As a result, their albums sold like hotcakes.

Cass McCombs followed suit with “Catacombs,” his fourth full-length album.
Released July 7 by Domino Records, “Catacombs” marks a departure from McCombs’ oblique lyrics and dense atmosphere in “Dropping the Writ,” his previous most-recent album, released in 2007.

Instead, McCombs returned to the bread and butter of the traditional, sensitive singer-songwriter: acoustic ballads.

From the opening track of the album, “Dreams-Come-True-Girl,” simple guitar chords and a catchy bass line usher in McCombs’ voice singing, “You’re not my dream girl / You’re not my reality girl / You’re my dreams-come-true girl.”

Functioning also as the first single, “Dreams-Come-True-Girl” epitomizes and introduces the rest of the album.

Functional instrumentals accompany McCombs’ eloquent and attention-grabbing lyrics.

Speaking of troubling past delusions and future aspirations for love, McCombs paints a vivid picture dripping with Americana.

Even physically resembling Nobel Prize-winning writer, John Steinbeck, McCombs sings simply with accessible lyrics about a struggling past, a hesitant present and an unsure future.

Without McCombs’ labyrinthian songs from his past albums, “Catacombs” acts like an intensely intimate and personal epistolary correspondence between lovers. Each song sounds like a letter between devoted, faithful lovers separated by an ocean.

Melancholy yet hopeful, copious songs fill this brimming album, which nearly overflows with longing, love and sincerity.

Other than repetitive and effortless instrumentation, McCombs succeeds in every way with “Catacombs.” This album solidifies the singer-songwriter as consistent and honest.

Although bereft of technical instrumental skill, McCombs’ lyrics thrust him in the ranks of other past prominent, poetic singer-songwriters such as Nick Drake, Scott Walker and Elliott Smith.

“Catacombs” is the perfect yearning summer afternoon album looking forward to the inevitable crisp, cold autumn nights.