ALBUM REVIEW: Cuchulain Sings About His Loves On ‘Window Seat’
Corbie Hill
Posted On February 14, 2025
Somewhere in his native South Carolina, the Oregon-based Cuchulain—who makes music under that mononym—met his someone special. Still fresh-faced and young, they stayed up late all summer, getting wasted to college radio: “Rolled in the grass in late July / we watched the dance of the fireflies,” Cuchulain sings over beach music bounce in “King Road,” continuing: “stuck our toes in among the reeds / August came and you led me.”
On his new album Window Seat, each song marks something warm from Cuchulain’s life, like a summer falling in love, a long and happy marriage, love of a child, and a good dog.
This folk-rocker is very specific in his songwriting, which can be risky. A good song strikes a delicate balance between the specific (which anchors a listener) and the general (which leaves space in a song for the listener’s own experiences). When Cuchulain’s specifics intersect with something universal, they’re effective. The moments that don’t, while catchy, aren’t as memorable.
“There’s a lot of things that he can’t do / but that don’t mean he ain’t my dude,” Cuchulain sings in the horn-driven “My Dog.” Ridiculous odes to a dog are nothing new: Neil Young’s “Old King” is an awkward jumble of hound anecdotes anchored by our common mortality. To his credit, Cuchulain’s entry rides a single, true emotion: the unconditional loyalty a dog and their person feel for each other.
Window Seat is a personal album, small in scope. With its brass section and romantic crooning, “Darling Don’t Sing to Me so Sweetly” evokes the Mavericks. Standout track “Miles” was inspired by a friend’s son.
The album’s title track “Window Seat” is a love song of depth, written in snapshots from a long marriage. “Every time I see you smile / I see your grandma’s eyes,” Cuchulain sings over delicate keys and tasteful pedal steel. “Tiny wrinkles to the past / a time machine leads me back.” By giving himself space to balance the specifics, Cuchulain hits his potential in a story that is both tinged with sadness at the human condition, and an homage to his own love — a universal refrain to be sure.
Cuchulain’s Window Seat is out today.
