CS Hellmann continues to deliver one rowdy banger after the other, consistently pushing the envelopes for us on what he’s capable of, coming across as a reliable musician with a nuanced vision to all his songs, as well as being a creative, musical juggernaut.
On the tail of his equally rowdy and rocking release ‘The Fear I Felt’, Nashville-based singer/songwriter and self-proclaimed guitar Aficionado CS Hellmann returns with the introspectively banging ‘Postcards’. Melting together the loud-but-soft rock tendencies of The Temper Trap with the thoughtful lyricisms of The Slow Show, with a hint of David Holmes’s space rock atmospherics, CS Hellmann’s ‘Postcards’ is a juicy cut of well-weighted musical fun.
The guitar aficionado does deliver with a litany of unusual-sounding guitars that populate the soundscapes of ‘Postcards’ as he gently croons over an unrequited romance, while sudden bursts of ‘Aw’ jumpstart a high-octane chorus with a sizzling guitar riff. The solid backbone delivered by the rapid-fire, syncopated, and bass drum-heavy beat creates a vast rhythmic base over which Hellmann’s guitars go mad with modulated, reverb-drenched tones, scruffy fuzzes, and carefully calculated, delicious overdrives. Truly juicy!
Those of us who relish a tasty, guitar-led tune that is not filled to the brim with blistering, lightning-quick solos will find ‘Postcards’ -as well as any other CS Hellmann song- particularly appealing. A songwriter with an expansive imagination for writing solid tunes, a bird’s eye vision for all his musical output, and an obvious passion for a uniquely spun guitar line, CS Hellmann delivers one more precious song with the jubilant on the outside but with a dark core ‘Postcards’.
