Caveman – Otero War

Three records in, Brooklyn’s Caveman mix haunt and uplift. Their effects can make their music both distant and intimate, sometimes at the same time. With latest Otero War, it is the sun that wins out.

The uplift on songs such as “Never Going Back” and “Life or Just Living” is not a simple shine, but an engaging brightness that manages to be smooth and interesting. Even when the group is wistful (“The State of Mind”), or so smooth it feels almost disco (“80 West”), the group is still hopeful. Contrastingly, the sadder pieces like “Project” and “Believe” just don’t connect in the same way (the latter perhaps with too many effects for a somewhat removed song).

Caveman have been something of a ‘critic’s darling’, but they also can confuse the musical literati with their genre mix. Otero War doesn’t make them any easer to pin down, but does lift ears.