Our new album ‘Thieves And Charlatans’ is out on Ripple Music October 18. Pre-save the album on the streaming platform of your choice.
US Customers – Pre-order physical copies @ https://ripplemusic.bigcartel.com/ EURO Customers – Pre-order physical copies @ https://en.ripple.spkr.media/ Or get your digital AND physical pre-orders WORLDWIDE @ https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com
Recorded at @madoakstudios by Benny Grotto. Mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music. Cover art by Titukh.
Boston-based stalwarts Cortez will release their fourth album, Thieves and Charlatans, this Fall. Set to arrive Oct. 18 through Ripple Music, the band’s follow-up to 2020’s Sell the Future (review here) continues that record’s somewhat darker outlook on their nonetheless melodically-centered, riff-heavy approach, traditional in many respects, but perhaps never more their own than now in terms of representing their metal/rock foundations and varied-of-purpose songwriting. October is a while away, so I don’t want to get into album-review mode and get ahead of things, but the record has been in the works for a while — it was recorded in Summer/Fall 2022 as the credits state below, and in the blue text after the headline is a bio I wrote last year — and time has done nothing to dull its impact.
In terms of style, it is the farthest reaching Cortez have been, but Cortez have never just been about reach so much as what can be done with a grounded sense of craft. That too is all over Thieves and Charlatans, and it coincides with a confidence born of maturity and the awareness-of-self in the material. That is to say, Cortez are intentional in what they do and they know what they’re about as a band. Those aren’t parameters being set or limits imposed — see “farthest reaching,” like, two sentences ago — but there’s a clarity of purpose that just can’t be faked, and it extends to bringing the likes of Craig Riggs (vocalist of Roadsaw, owner of Mad Oak Studio, drummer of Sasquatch, etc.) and Jim Healey (We’re All Gonna Die, Black Thai, countless others in addition to solo work) — two powerhouse singers — to join Matt Harrington on vocals across some of the tracks, both backing in “Levels” and contributing to “Stove Up” and “Leaders of Nobody,” respectively. It’s not the kind of thing Cortez would have done in a less-assured position, but Thieves and Charlatans is the moment, and those songs, as well as the rest of the record, hit just right.
Save a spot on your year-end list for when you hear the album, is what I’m saying.
And so much for “not review-mode.” Fair enough. – JJ Kozcan
