To my knowledge, a subset of musical genres which seems less explored than it should be is acoustic-psychedelic rock. Some of my favorite music from legendary psychedelic-rock band, Pink Floyd, comes from their work in the early 1970s, which incorporated a lot of this sound into the albums which they were producing. To me, there is something special about combining the stripped-down nature of an acoustic recording, which is inherently bare and revealing, with the lavish sound which psychedelic music has in its DNA. Thankfully, as underappreciated as it may be, this sound lives on through Cory Hanson and his new song, “Paper Fog.”
Starting out in the simplest of ways, the track presents a lone drum machine ticking away at a standard beat. The machine’s quality inherently brings to mind a carefully crafted lo-fi sound, which has become more popular as the years have gone on. Soon after, a real drum begins to play over the same beat, a bass and acoustic guitar joining. On top of that, a slide guitar provides an ethereal lead melody to follow along with. The first band I can think of, as far as references go, would be early 1970s Pink Floyd. The instrumentation of the song stays relatively the same, with a piano gradually added, as Hanson begins to lend his soft vocals to the track. However, halfway through the song, things quiet down as the space is filled with ambient sounds. An acoustic guitar leads us into the solo section of the song, which is held up by a synthesizer-sounding distorted electric guitar. One more sung section of the song passes and then we are treated to a synthesizer driven instrumental for the remainder of the track, which gradually fades out.
To me, this song places way more emphasis on its instrumentation and style than its lyrical content. That’s not to say that the lyrics aren’t impactful in their own way, but with the way everything is mixed, along with Hanson’s singing style, a large amount of the words being sung come across as inaudible. From what I was able to understand, the song seems to be using various elements of nature to emphasize the importance of living in the moment. While, more literally, the song seems to refer to smoking, “Look, here comes a cloudy paper fog,” it’s worth noting the line’s connection to nature, falling in line with the rest of the song’s lyrics.
As a complete picture, the song succeeds in establishing its style and immediately crushing all expectations. By starting off as simplistic as it does, everything is a blank canvas waiting to be painted. While the lyrics were largely inaudible to me, the style in which they were sung, along with their melody, fit perfectly into the track’s laid-back feeling. All that being said, while it is easy to come up with comparisons, and I know I already have, I do still believe that this song sits comfortably in its own unique style. By standing on its own, being held up largely by its originality, Cory Hanson’s “Paper Fog” delivers an experience which I can definitely recommend.
