There’s apparently a lot I didn’t know about Louis Cole at first. The first time I heard about this guy was when he was featured on Thundercat’s album It Is What It Is, appearing on the song “I Love Louis Cole,” a tribute to him. Yes, he’s best friends with Thundercat. Hell, he’s signed to the label Brainfeeder and co-write some songs with them on both Drunk and It Is What It Is. He’s apparently also ‘super inspirational’ to FlyLo when he was working on Flamagra.
Louis Cole also has a lot of side ventures as far as I know. He’s one-half of the jazz-funk electronic duo KNOWER with fellow musician/singer-songwriter Genevieve Artadi, and he’s also half of the duo ClownC0re, the other being Sam Gendel.
I checked out some of his work before, mostly his 2022 album Quality Over Opinion which ended up in my Honorable Mentions for that year, plus songs like “Bitches” slapped, and I even listened to his other piece of work Some Unused Songs. Now with his latest album Nothing, it’s not just him on here.
He has the help of Metropole Orkest, a jazz-pop hybrid orchestra comprising between 52 to 97 musicians. They’ve been running for almost 80 years, performing with acts like Herbie Hancock, Ella Fitzgerald, and Pat Metheny among others, and the main conductor Jules Buckley has been chief conductor since 2013 with a brief stop in 2020 and a return in 2023. Going into the singles with this album, something about them clicked with me. I was eager to see how this will go.
You know what… I don’t want to jump the gun yet but I think this is going to be my favorite album of 2024.
Actually, in fact, I can say that it was an amazing experience going into this album in full. Like front to back, this album feels like an entire movie score, and given that this was performed with an orchestra, you can make that case easily with the intro “Ludovici Cole Est Frugus:” with the church organ, the strings, and the atmosphere, it is very haunting and eerie.
Of course, we have one of the singles released prior with “Things Will Fall Apart,” and that one is very bombastic with the bass, trumpets and horns, and it does lean more on the pop side of things, albeit very high energy and ending on a low yet calming sound. “Life” brought the energy back up, and I know I say this a lot in some albums, but everything about this song sounds like something out of a video game soundtrack, and it is lovely! Plus, we have an appearance of the mighty SAXOPHONE!!
“It All Passes” has that lovely calm with the strings and horns but following that, “Cruisin’ For P” is just a big highlight for me. That throwback big-band swing sound is so damn catchy and makes you want to snap your fingers to the beat. The horns, the strings, the vocals, it all sounds amazing and the piano solo from Jacob Mann is a nice touch.
I’m my own bitch, no off position switch
Genes comin’ unzipped, that double helix bullshit
Why read the room when you could just assume
That nothin’ makin’ sense makes sense?The Sun is another flame
Weird picture when you look through the frame
Better or worse
The ruler of the universe
Then in comes “A Pill In The Sea,” and this immediately ended up being one of my favorite songs on here. That and the song feels like the cousin of another song Cole is associated with called “It’s All Nothing Until It’s Everything” by KNOWER. And yes, Genevieve Artadi does contribute here as she’s one of the various singers here and yeah, it does sound similar but hey, both songs are good and this one does have a menacing beginning and different lyrics to set it apart. The drumming is excellent and the keyboards by Rai Thistlethwayte was excellent.
We cue to the title track “nothing”, which is more of an interlude with its lush strings and calming atmosphere.
Felt myself from other side
This sunset lookin’ like sunrise
Only one way, and that is time
Just stay with it, fall up the climb
Lookin’ close, infinity
Right there, I saw the back of me
Far-off feelings, let them flow
Those things I wish I knew, I’ve knownA pill in the sea
A memory or dream
The nothing calls to me
And here’s me answering
Start, end, again
Still gone now and then
Forever last and first
To kiss the universе
“Who Cares” both 1 and 2 are very interesting as part 1 has this breezy, light and fun vibe going on which continues on into the 2nd part, and halfway through the 2nd part where there is a slight key change to it, in comes this FINAL BOSS IMPENDING DOOM MUSIC! Like this is the type of music that plays when there’s a villain reveal that happens. That one just took me by surprise. I don’t know why but “Wizard Funk” reminds me of the anime Delicious in Dungeon for some reason. Then again, that is a very good anime that premiered this year (you should watch that BTW). Then “Weird Moments” starts out having this 8-bit-esque sound, and then on cue are the trombones and the horns.
“High Five” has some solid vocals done both by Cole and Genevieve Artadi, and as simple and short as the lyrics are, it does have that sweet and calming spot. Of course, we have the other single “These Dreams are Killing Me,” and I’m going to be repeating myself but it sounds wonderful. It’s triumphant, and it feels cinematic in a way like the outset of an adventure even though the lyrics says otherwise.
We left on different planes
Different sunsets light our days
To know that you exist
Is the bridge over times we missedEven our farthest zones
Find us in each other’s glow
Across it all
We form clouds for the next big stormBlue jacket, smiling teeth
A high five deeper than the sea
And none to stop the wave
Of all of the jokes we’ve saved
Sam Wilkes on bass and Pedro Martins on guitar killed it out there, and the thrills get more bombastic at least after a while as we get to “Shallow Laughter: Bitches (orchestral version).” The first part has Cole going falsetto with the violins and strings, and soon after that it kicks into high gear with the second part being the orchestral version of a song originally on Quality Over Opinion. Now I’m not going to say which version was better overall, but I’m glad there’s two versions because it reminds me why I love the track in the first place. The drums, the intensity, the guitar, the saxophone, everything about it is 10x more and I will forever love it. Things do cool down with the last few tracks. “Let It Happen (orchestral version)” is also originally from Quality Over Opinion, and while I never did think too much of that track like I did with “Bitches,” this one sounds great, too, especially near the end as it swells to what sounds like some familiar Christmas music.
In comes “Doesn’t Matter”, the penultimate 11-minute track, and listening to it several times, everything about this song is haunting and makes you wonder about a lot of things. The buildup to that instrumentation soars high with the vocalization and could make a grown person cry, and going back to it on repeating listens (yes, I even went back to this one!) has me feeling all sorts of emotions in varying ways. “You Belonged” is the final track ending the album on a soft finishing note.
Yeah, you can tell that I have no bad things to say about this album. I just loved it from start to finish. I admired what Louis Cole did here from the instrumentation, the vocals, the fact there’s an orchestra behind all of this and the way it sounds like something you hear from a film or even a video game for that matter. This is pure art right here, and I haven’t been this enthusiastic about an album this year since Justice a few months back. It is for sure going to be a favorite of mine by the end of the year. Louis Cole, Jules Buckley, everyone involved from the whole Metropole Orkest and all the featured players on this, this was amazing. I loved it.
FINAL VERDICT: BUY IT. There’s NOTHING about this album that is basic.
NOTHING is on Brainfeeder Records. You can buy the album via his Bandcamp and also on streaming services.
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