Artist:     Kris Gruen

Album:     Coast & Refuge

Label:     Mother West

Release Date:     7.27.18

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In danger of bursting, the big, full heart of Kris Gruen’s sweeping, contemporary folk-pop tour de force Coast & Refuge is brimming with hope and optimism. It’s a much more wholesome and uplifting lust for life than Iggy Pop envisioned, as the son of famed photographer Bob Gruen approaches songwriting and arrangements with a sincere sense of wonder and possibility.

Tempered by a captivating succession of softer, more subdued and roots-based ballads such as the feathery “Coming Down Around Me,” the swaying, almost ethereal and icy “You Say” and the slowly sketched out “Tightrope,” Coast & Refuge can also be inspiring and explosive, with vast canyons and pristine reservoirs of sound to marvel at. The heady indie-rock rush of opener “Body in Motion,” with its dramatic, pounding drums, is exhilarating, while the powerful “Lions” soars, as stirring chanted vocals, generous strumming and a variety of percussive textures wash away jaded negativity in a flood of passionate urgency. “Every Day and Night Now” is just as expansive and affecting, taking a gentle ride with Peter Moren, of Peter, Bjorn and John, on trails of tasteful finger-picking that eventually beholds a limitless frontier.

While employing some of the same commonplace radio-friendly tricks – and perhaps relying on them too much – as The Lumineers and American Authors in outpourings of unabashed joy such as the string-sweetened “By the Fire,” Kris Gruen isn’t quite so predictable. Indulging in numerous collaborations here, he separates himself from the alternative-folk crowd by painting with a broad palette of instrumentation, mostly traditional and acoustic but with some modern programming thrown in for good measure. However, it’s the infectious spirit and cathartic release of Coast & Refuge that, for all of its enormous hooks and alluring melodies, wins out. A gorgeous duet with up-and-coming Finnish singer-songwriter Peppina, “Young Hearts” champions the hunger and enthusiasm of youth over the wisdom of Father Time in singing, “You may have experience, but I have an open heart.” That serves them both well.

—Peter Lindblad