Cotton Mather - Wild Kingdom (2017)

It took 15 years for Cotton Mather to return with 2016's Death Of The Cool, the ?rst collection of songs compiled from band leader robert harrison's ambitious, possibly impossible aim to write 64 songs, one for each hexagram of the I Ching, the ancient text which he refers to as an "extraordinary book about ordinary life." Now, Cotton Mather will release Wild Kingdom on April 7th, 2017. The album brings together another 11 tracks, following up the 11-song death of the cool, and the three-track "Cotton Mather With Nicole Atkins EP." to date, 30 of the "songs from the i ching" have been released. "Wild Kingdom is more a change of season than scenery," Harrison states. "While i was writing the ?rst half of the I Ching project, i tended to circle the songs with a requisite richness and gravity because i thought it important to do something for the ?rst release in ?fteen years. Otherwise, what's the point 'relatively obscure indie cult band reunites to demonstrate that maybe going away the ?rst time was just a ?ne idea?' uh, no thank you. You have to get better!" Cotton Mather fans at SXSW 2017 can judge for themselves ahead of the album's national release. Wild kingdom will be available exclusively through adored austin record store waterloo records for one month prior to the rest of the world, coinciding with SXSW and Cotton Mather's performance supporting spoon on march 15th as part of that band's three-night festival residency. "Kontiki gave me something to shoot for," Spoon leader Britt Daniel once said of cotton mather's 1997 underground classic album. In addition to praise from musicians, the record was especially loved by the UK press, with both Uncut and The Guardian awarding it ?ve-star ratings. Like the instantly memorable pop songs that made (and make) Kontiki in?uential – a two-disc reissue released in 2012 received similar praise all over again, and Kontiki was also ?nally released on vinyl at the end of 2016 – Wild Kingdom continues in the Robert Harrison tradition of impeccable song craft that doesn't ever let up on the hooks, or the winking.