ALBUM REVIEW: Andrew Combs Goes Back to Basics on ‘Sundays’

Andrew Combs has sort of done it all. He’s made an actually good pop country record (2015’s All These Dreams), an album of heady psych-pop grooves (2019’s Ideal Man), and a brooding, contemplative singer-songwriter collection (2017’s Canyons of My Mind), not to mention his earliest, twangier stuff (2012’s Worried Man, reissued in 2019). An underappreciated artist who continually reexamines himself, stretches, and ultimately evolves into someone new, Combs is, in some ways, a master of disguise, just as dexterous in his songwriting as the hook-heavy showman as he is the somber introvert. He has never taken the expected route, preferring to try something different with each new record, and his latest, Sundays, is another entirely new chapter.

The commitment to the sheer minimalism of Sundays puts it on the cusp of a concept album, though it really may have just been the result of Combs needing to wipe the slate clean. A mental breakdown amid the pandemic prompted him to create an almost meditative practice with songwriting, setting aside Sundays to take to the studio with trusted collaborators. On the resulting set of songs, Combs manages to create arrangements that are stark without being severe, meticulously controlled but still fluid and softened with his smoky-smooth voice.

Unexpected and intriguing moments show up on the bouncy, Bowie-esque “Down Among the Dead” and wherever Tyler Summers adds his mind-bending woodwind instrumentation (arranged by Jordan Lehnings), like the haunting “Drivel to a Dream” and “Mark of Man” (a foreboding commentary of climate change). The faintest echo of past Combs can be found on the catchy “Still Water,” also a dreamy showcase for the purity of his vocals, and a driving percussion element reminiscent of Radiohead’s In Rainbows era can be head on “Truth and Love.” Though Sundays is very much steeped in Combs’ anxieties — faith and spirituality, environmental doom, the passing of time — there is light and levity to be found in his passion for and dedication to exploration.

Andrew Combs’ Sundays is out Aug. 19 via Tone Tree Music.