Imitation of War

by Itasca

Overview

During the 2010s, guitarist Kayla Cohen established her solo pseudonym Itasca with a series of hushed, sepia-toned releases full of intricate fingerpicking and wispy reflections. The project's last two albums of the decade saw her flesh out her sound with a backing band while remaining distinctly reserved. Coming after a gap of over four years, her first album of the next decade, Imitation of War, finds Itasca taking the band's sound a step further by plugging in and dipping a toe into rock territory for the first time, if a particularly hazy, heavy-lidded, and still folk-style variety of rock. At the same time, she leans even further into historical, mythological, and philosophical subject matter, as foreshadowed in song titles like "El Dorado," "Olympia," and "Moliére's Reprise." It's worth mentioning that Imitation of War was produced by Robbie Cody (Wand, Cordovas) and features Evan Backer (Cory Hanson, Bonnie "Prince" Billy) on bass and Gun Outfit's Daniel Swire and Wand's Evan Burrows on drums. The album's opener, the ambiguous "Milk," refers to the legend of Genevieve and the mirror while introducing the meandering live feel of the record as a whole. The relatively energetic, trippy title track then picks up the pace and turns up the volume, but "relatively" is a key word here, and the set list only approaches that song's level of extroversion again on the sprawling, nearly ten-minute "Easy Spirit," a centerpiece of sorts that appears midway through Side B. Along the way, songs like the lovely "Dancing Woman," a folky entry that floats through complex modulations, and the sparse, sentimental "Under Gates of Cobalt Blue" offer moments of beauty and levity -- again relatively speaking. It all works well together sonically and conceptually, resulting in an album that is Itasca's most cohesive and mystical yet -- and that's saying something. ~ Marcy Donelson

Product Details

Release Date:	02/09/2024
Label:	Paradise Of Bachelors
UPC:	0617308063196
Rank:	55919

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Itasca   Primary Artist