One thing musicians can’t and shouldn’t do during hard times is stop making music. Very often, such hard times produce their best work. Maybe Winston C.W., formally known as Winston Cook-Wilson is not the best -known artist around (unless you are familiar with his band project Office Culture), so it might be hard to say whether his most recent album Good Guess presents the best he has done so far, but it is certainly a work that deserves wider attention.
After all, he recorded this album live in the studio, with no overdubs during the course of just two days, with the help of the rhythm section of the experimental trio Scree. Which wouldn’t matter much if the music wasn’t up to scratch, and would be yet another obscure curiosity.
Fortunately, Winston C.W. actually came up with one of those quietly understated albums that just keep growing on you with its organic melancholy feel, great musical ideas, and very intricate musicianship. C.W.’s lyrics fit in perfectly in this scheme.
In his words, ”The songs on the album are about trying to stay in the moment while feeling like you’re being held hostage by the past. The spirit of the music itself, too—the group improvisation and egalitarianism of this trio with Ryan and Carmen—is all about staying in the present. It’s about listening to each other and playing things differently every time while sticking to defined bigger ideas that move us.”
And his words, truly explain this album that definitely should not be missed.
