Eddie Cohn is an accomplished indie rock veteran, and has long been known for his ability to fuse searing musical intensity with deeply thoughtful, socially conscious lyricism. The Los Angeles-based artist continues to cement his reputation as a masterful storyteller unafraid to tackle the most pressing issues of our time on his latest single, “Stop Waving the Gun.” Cohn’s sonic roots are in the grunge fueled rock revolution of the 90s, an era that helped shape his sound with a raw, uncompromising edge. But over the years he’s deftly worked in his own introspective sensibilities, creating a style that crackles with electric energy, but with a confessional intimacy.
Cohn’s most deft balance here is ‘Stop Waving the Gun,’ as he turns his penetrating pinhole on America’s enduring epidemic of gun violence. Instead of making the piece didactic, the artist assumes an empathetic stance towards a topic that combines complicity, emotional context and a further melange of social factors to which is attached the damaging historical results, and then employs his impassioned singing and sharp, danced lyrical viewpoint to inspire a more thoughtful assessment of that human loss. The grave nature of Cohn’s message is underscored by shimmering lead lines, textural drama and evoking an emotional weight to proceedings.
Enveloped in the singer’s magnetic vocal performance, “Stop Waving the Gun” turns into a rousing cinematic anthem, its memorable hooks and shifts counterbalanced imperfections into a captivating, rousing adventure from the opening beat to the end. A mind boggling music video directed by Leslie Andrew Ridings makes it that much more powerful of an artistic statement from a seasoned master of his craft, and the single, as one of the best this year, acts as a modern rock masterpiece with its poignant messages about tough social issues without sacrificing the visceral energy, or sonic innovation that defines Cohn’s lasting legacy of his craft. This is a call to empathy and understanding in a world full of both.
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