Seeker

"To overcome an uncharacteristic bout of writer's block, Mikal Cronin took the took the time-honored sequester-yourself-in-a-cabin approach and emerged with the songs on Seeker, his fourth solo album. A longtime collaborator with other Southern California acts, he enlisted members of the Ty Segall Freedom Band, and despite that group's penchant for raucousness, out came a mild, confounding blend of twangy power pop, like reaching for half and half and guzzling skim. Cronin's wistful vocals land on lofty themes-death, rebirth, cleansing fire-but the sound itself is a shrug, a noncommittal exploration of big ideas that never quite reaches an exclamation point, let alone a big impact".

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"No matter the stylistic variation found on Seeker - and it goes from spare acoustic ballads (On the Shelf") to raging rockers that deserve to be cranked real loud ("Guardian Well") - Cronin's songs are hard-hitting, sticky and emotionally wrenching, the band plays with passionate fire and the production goes a long way toward capturing a live in the studio feel that's loose and rambling. Fans of Cronin's early, less complicated work might long for a return to those days, but those days are long gone. For anyone who thought MCIII was heading in a direction that sounded promising, Seeker arrives at the destination in a tumbling, exciting cloud of dust, sound and craft".

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"What this all feels like is some form of catharsis for Cronin. He found himself in a rut, did what many of us would be too scared to do, and spent time with just his thoughts, for weeks on end. He waded through them, and came out the other side with his best batch of songs in years, that helped him exorcise his demons and make some sort of sense of all the tumult he'd experienced. "A seeker always finds an answer", Cronin says. His answer? Well, it sounds pretty great".

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