Albums to watch

Interior Live Oak

Cass McCombs

Interior Live Oak

Eleventh studio album from the California-born singer-songwriter

ADM rating[?]

7.8

Label
Domino
UK Release date
15/08/2025
US Release date
15/08/2025
  1. 10.0 |   The Guardian

    With existential lullabies and ritualistic stomps, tear-jerking odes and ballads worthy of Sinatra, US indie’s steadfast storyteller makes a wonderfully unhurried double album his best yet
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  2. 9.0 |   Uncut

    These 16 ineluctably lovely songs are his most personally reflective for some time. they're also among his most structurally straightforward. Print edition only

  3. 8.1 |   Pitchfork

    McCombs’ songwriting is in top form on his latest LP. Beneath the effortlessly classic-sounding rock and soul, his music offers a fascinating tangle of character studies, mythic layers, and barbed humor
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  4. 8.0 |   Mojo

    There are startling moments: the title track’s D&D blues-rock, for example, The Groundhogs doing The Tempest in a nasty basement; or Juvenile’s ice-rink keyboards, McCombs ennobling and mocking adolescence (“You suck/I suck/Primus sucks”). Print edition only

  5. 8.0 |   Record Collector

    An album of layered, witty and fully felt elisions. Print edition only

  6. 8.0 |   Far Out

    The album is a sepia-toned serving of smooth nostalgia, arguably at its best when it leans into the reverie with a riff that calls upon a relaxed stroll
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  7. 8.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    The highlights deserve to be ranked amongst McCombs finest achievements so far
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  8. 7.7 |   Paste Magazine

    The Bay Area-born troubadour’s 11th album treats memory as malleable, letting roots and self entwine in wry, unpredictable ways
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  9. 7.5 |   Spectrum Culture

    As a statement of McCombs' range and artistic prowess, it’s an impressive collection. As a singular listening experience, it tends to be a bit much
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  10. 7.0 |   All Music

    Offering a little something for everyone in the McCombs fandom, Interior Live Oak is both a little more moving than the wry songwriter's typical output and a little on the long side, although it may be just the thing for a contemplative Sunday afternoon
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  11. 6.6 |   Northern Transmissions

    His best work finds a melody and swims with it; here, too many songs tread water. Interior Live Oak is as much an exhibition of McCombs’s range as it is a reminder that range alone isn’t enough
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