Something about the approach of Cool Charisma is somehow surprisingly gentle. It does not blast the door open, but kind of strolls into the house, nonchalantly, as though it were a visitor who is always welcome. That chirpy, ringing guitar melody slides past your ears like the sun does into half-open window blinds on a morning when you are alone in the house. And you find yourself even before you are aware of it your body is reacting to it, a tiny nod, even a smile you did not originally intend. It is marvelously nonchalantly done. The music you might hear on the radio one night when you can't fall asleep, and you listen to some Irish radio station, and you listen to a song, and you get the thought in your mind God, I must tell someone about this song.
MacLeod, the pulse of the beloved Cisco in Dublin, has never been shy to talk of his influences, and here he carries them like an old jacket that has always been worn, and which, nevertheless, retains the outline of the man you once were. The guitars have a Beatles-like shimmer, there are those Beach Boys harmonies that are sun-warmed and breezy, and there is that soft Motown sway that holds everything down. But there is nothing about it as of a borrowing. The guitars shine without attempting to blind, the rhythm section provides this light and consistent bounce under your feet, and that call and response chorus? It does not even declare its presence, it simply comes along, penetrates your skin, and the second time you listen you are singing along it, without even realizing the point when that occurred.
But it is the silent sobriety lurking behind all that glitter which makes the song really count--the one which makes it stick. You feel the structure even without analysing it: the slight changes of the chord, the harmonic side-turns which you can detect, and have to take a short breath. And the words, even the lines, are almost trying to get to something higher, something thoughtfully gentle. It is the type of careless melody that can only be effective when a person took the time to construct something thoughtful to the tune.
Cool Charisma is one of those songs that makes you remember why indie pop is important, not to some big, dramatic extent, but quietly, in the most human manner, that music can sometimes enter into our ears. It's warm. It's clever. It is easily contagious without necessarily having to deceive you into enjoying it. Wind the windows down, play it a little louder than you habitually would, and play it through you. Sean MacLeod is not the same person, but it is a new one that has entered a different dimension of him. And in every note you can hear that light.
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