Richmond Fontaine – “El Cortez” / “Hardly Seen”

Once again, Richmond Fontaine singer Willy Vlautin reveals his ability to drop the listener smack-dab in the middle of disarmingly disquieting vignettes. “El Cortez”, appropriately placed on what’s labeled the “deep” side of this single, is an unsettling narrative about an afternoon at an apartment building swimming pool. A guy leaves his girl at home for a trip to the store; enter an old man with “Red greased back hair and varicose veins and alcohol scarred face/Fat with years of living that way.”

If that description isn’t disturbing enough, singer Willy Vlautin continues: “He said things to her/Slurred in speech but definite in words,” before dropping his shorts, “his catheter leaking.” The details end there, leaving the listener unsure as to whether the sexual abuse crosses the line from emotional to physical; regardless, real damage has been done. The impact of the traumatic scene is only heightened by the tension created by both the dirgeful musical accompaniment (especially Paul Brainerd’s mournful pedal steel) and Vlautin’s drawn-out vocal delivery.

But “Hardly Seen”, the instrumental on the “shallow” flipside, is as far removed from “El Cortez” as one could get, a wistful slice of ’80s Southern pop, highlighted by Dave Harding’s bass work and Brainerd’s steel-y flash.