Exuding a moody Southern Gothic sound in its array of chilling vocals, moving orchestration, and elegant piano work, The Death of Cool is a thorough success from New Orleans-based artist Daphne Parker Powell. Produced by Jimbo Mathus, the record blends cinematic horn arrangements with swampy guitars, providing a cathartic, torch-lit exploration of resilience, mortality, and emotional sincerity. Powell wrote the album following a bitter divorce and ongoing cancer battle.
Laden with stunning piano work and woozy brass tones, “Perpetual Light of the Void” is a captivating opener, chronicling complex love and grief in its heartfelt, smitten lyrical disposition — intermixed with a sense of foreboding in having the Book of the Dead placed at one’s bedside. The framing of “now that the dread’s set in” captures a sense of personal tumult, and also a distinction between those that fixate on mortality and those that choose to ignore their own imminent demise.
This poetic prowess continues on the subsequent “Scorched Earth & the Flood,” where moody piano and subdued, jazzy rhythmic ruminations take center stage. “In my four-chambered heart, I have plastered all the walls,” Powell’s vocals consume amidst brass and piano interplay, trying to make “sense of it all” and furthering themes of persevering through personal obstacles. Considered perhaps the “true heart” of the album, the single compels especially in Caroline Brunious’ clarinet performance. The rest of the album stirs as well, from the subdued folk emotion within “The Stranger” to the brassy, organ-touched vibrancy of “Object Impermanence.” The Death of Cool is an impactful full-length success from Daphne Parker Powell.
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