Customer Reviews

Rainy Season

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The Rainy Season" is Marc Cohn's sophomore effort, and you would never know it by listening to it. This album picks up where his self-titled album leaves off. Cohn's lyrics go together like puzzle pieces: perfectly. His music is full, but it still allows you to focus on his words. His songs are bluesy, and there is so much emotion in his voice. There is no disappointment here.

The album opens with the catchy "Walk Through the World", like "Walking In Memphis" on the first album, and sets the tone for what's to come. The song is upbeat, driven by the notes of his piano, and the words just flow. The title track uses the same formula, a strong voice, great lyrics and well-placed notes. "From the Station" is a beautiful song about a woman's love and his own lost feelings. Most of his songs are high in emotion, like the poetic "She's Becoming Gold" and "Rest for the Weary".

Cohn's music is very meaningful. He succeeds at being a musician, a songwriter and poet. The lyrics read well without the music, and doing so you can really see what Cohn is singing about. Some of the songs are actually quite heavy, none very light, but every one of them is a rare gem. Cohn has a great talent, and this album shouldn't be missed.

After enjoying the hits "Silver Thunderbird", "Walking in Memphis", and "Ghost Train" off his eponymous first album, I knew I had to have his second effort. I was not disappointed.

"Walk Through the World" is the catchy, justifiable hit here, but my heart lies in this CD's finishing tracks. "She's Becoming Gold" is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, about a young girl growing into a woman, "as she thinks about all of life's mystery, and how slowly the answers unfold". And "The Things We've Handed Down", Marc Cohn's excellent tribute to his then-as-yet-unborn child...well, it's really hard to suppress the odd tear...

Excellent CD Marc!

Marc Cohn's brief shot at fame in the mid-nineties is evidenced in his second album, "The Rainy Season." An adept, poetic songwriter, Cohn delivers his eleven tunes with respect and sincerity, and touches on several of the themes songwriters have attacked over the years. My personal favorite is "Paper Walls." It's got a hypnotic, moody feel, and the musicianship is impeccable. Also liked the imagery in the hotel room; it's almost sinister. "It ain't the road that kills you, it's the paper walls..."
The rest of the album has some unique gems, including "The Things We Leave Behind" which is a beautiful poem to his yet unborn child, that makes you think about parenthood and even about how we feel about our youth and our parents. Haunting. "She's Turning to Gold" is also touching in its sorrowful tale of a woman who is growing "gold" without a true love.
I don't know what happened to Marc; we sure could use his elegant poetry in this day of irrepressibly boring music.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Marc Cohn's first album took my heart by storm, this one carried it away. Truly great lyrics and music. Soulful interpretations. The first and second album top my list of all time favorites, and have for the last 8-10 years. I never tire of listening to them. The first is highly romantic, like new love. In the second, there seems to be a tarnish to the romance and loss of love that is both painful and realistic. When taking both together, they depict paths love can take over time. You follow the journey from the starry eyed "Perfect World" and "True Companion" to the doubts in "Rainy Season" and estrangement in "Paper Walls". Or aging singleness in "She's Turning Gold." Or the caginess over getting involved again in "Angels at the Station." Or the complexities of parenthood in "Baby King."
Love it, first note to last.

This album got almost totally ignored only 2 years after Marc Cohn won the best new artist grammy. And that's sad, because the truth is, this album is 100 times better. He expands his range a bit on this album, throws in more acoustic guitar, a few bigger arrangements. The lyrics are also a lot more melancholy, a lot more real. There is some serious poetry in a few of these songs. Let me just say this: I'm an 18 year-old college student who's been listening to Marc for as long as i could and this is the best CD i own. And i'm not normally a real fan of singer-songwriters, if that tells you anything. People should stop swooning over "Walking in Memphis" and appreciate Marc for his entire body of work. "She's Becoming Gold," on this album, has got to be one of the best songs of all time. BUY THIS CD...

Is it a sophomore slump? Just a bit. On this one, whether at record company urging to "make another hit" or simply from the desire to work with artists he admired, there are plenty of guest artists: David Crosby and Graham Nash lending vocals to track 7 and 10, Bonnie Raitt's slide and voice on the title ditty, Tom Petty bandmate Benmont Tench's organ on 4 songs, and the influence of John Leventhal (heavily over the whole project). The tracks tend to be "thicker" this time, the spare "Things We've Handed Down" is a definite exception.

HIGHLIGHTS:
The title tune is a wish from Cohn to his wife that she'd be there as he does the touring that's the demon of his profession. ("Let me just get these stars out of my eyes/'Cause I just wanna look back over all the years/With you right there standing by my side..") "Rest for the Weary" is part Biblical allusion, part paean to his hard-working dad ("Took a holiday for Christmas/Then he fell asleep beside the tree") and part fear that he's travelling the same road ("Sometimes I can't catch my breath/Sometimes I see my father's footsteps and man, it scares me half to death..") "Mama's in the Moon" finds Cohn mourning his mother. ("I'm rising like the ocean/And I'm crazy as a loon/And I don't know what I'm doing since mama's in the moon...") "Paper Walls" is a nifty number that finds Cohn alone on the road cursing his fate as the couple next door "do that thing that we used to do". The slinky mid-tempo tune ends with a twist as he invites himself to join her after her lover splits following an argument. Imitation gospel number "Baby King" is the opposite end of the spectrum, comparing a newborn's arrival to Jesus' with a backing that recalls the Blind Boys of Alabama. "Medicine Man" is a character sketch of a doctor who's hurting from the loss of his own wife even as he heals others. The most poignant song comes last in "Things We've Handed Down", a song that is sentimental but never saccharine, as Cohn imagines his coming baby ("Will you be a mama's boy/or daddy's little girl?") as not only his future but his link to a dim past ("From places no one one here remembers/Come the things we've handed down")

LOWS:
"From the Station" isn't saved by the appearance of Nash and Crosby. It simply isn't much of a song. "Don't Talk to Her at Night" also leaves me cold.

BOTTOM LINE:
Still a worthy recording that gets a fair amount of play in our house. Not the Cohn I'd dip my toe into at first, but if you've already gotten your feet wet with him you'll probably like RAINY.

3 1/2 stars

I agree with another reviewer that this album went exactly nowhere. It ended up in the cutout bin before you could say $3.99. That seems a shame since there are really great songs here including "Walk Through the World", "The Rainy Season", "Paper Walls", and "She's Becoming Gold". I think perhaps a lot of people were not willing to give it a chance when they realized "Walking in Memphis" was not here. Make this your second Marc Cohn album and you shouldn't be disappointed.

The sophomore album from Marc Cohn beat the dreaded second album slump. But it didn't stay away from a serious sense of dread. "The Rainy Season" is a much darker album than his debut, containing mostly songs of loss and loneliness. His admiration of Van Morrison comes through here more so than the first album. Where his debut had the gospel quality of "Walking In Memphis," "The Rainy Season" has nothing that inspiring. In fact, where "Silver Thunderbird" was a tribute of sorts to his father that benefited from a certain cheer, on this album the similarly themed "Rest For The Weary" look at his Mother's point of view and is considerably less lighthearted.

So it goes throughout "The Rainy Season." If you considered Marc's debut to be boyish, then this album is about the adult. "Baby King" describes the awe of being a father, when no matter what you do, the new center of attention is always going to beautifully upstage you. "Medicine Man" confronts a widowed physician who goes from house call to house call, looking for the lost love of his life in the healing of his patients. Same with "She's Becoming Gold," where the housewife is running "to the end of the drive to talk to her friends on the phone" when she discovers "the man of her dreams isn't all that he seems." This middle-aged melancholy of a woman on the verge is one of my favorites on this CD.

Marc also had a load of guests here, benefiting his rank of Best New Artist Grammy. Bonnie Raitt and members of Los Lobos are along for the ride, and they all compliment marc nicely. This was a sophisticated follow-up to his debut. But without the fire-starter of a "Walking In Memphis" (the bluesy "Walk Through The World" came close), it didn't get the commercial notice it should have. Nonetheless, "The Rainy Season" is a tour-de-force of singer-songwriter prowess and worth a spin in your library.

"The rainy season", marc cohn's second album is terrific, when his first cd was built around piano, this one is more about acoustic guitar; And it's good !!! for me, "things we've handed done" is marc's best song... wonderful, very slow with the piano !!! "don't talk to her at night", "paper walls", "medicine man" and "she's becoming gold" are also very good.
you have to notice also that bonnie Raitt plays the slide guitar and sings with marc on track 3 "the rainy season"...
This cd deserves his 5 stars !!!

Cohn's sophomore effort is something of a neglected jewel - 'Walk Through The World' gained a reasonable amount of radio play, but it failed to make the charts, and the album peaked no higher than #63 in it's four-month chart reign. But you shouldn't judge an album on its chart success (or lack of).

Most of the songs here are every bit as strong as those from the debut - particularly the title track, 'Medicine Man' and 'From The Station', but also two of the most deeply personal tracks ever recorded - 'Rest for the Weary' and 'The Things We've Handed Down'. Much of the rest is comparatively lightweight, but still very good.

Many people will probably dislike 'Baby King' with it's gospel feel and annoyingly repetitive chorus, but it is the only track here that feels out of place, or, indeed, unwanted.

In conclusion then, if you loved Marc Cohn's debut (and why wouldn't you?) you'll like 'The Rainy Season' an awful lot.