Rickolus's Coyote & Mule

Rick Colado is a star. As Rickolus he's a superstar. This homegrown talent has, over the last decade or so, quietly created some of the best emotional, heart string pulling indie rock the world hasn't heard. It's a shame really because the guy can write one heck of a tune and his songs deserve to be heard. The last Julius Airwave album is a masterpiece and his two previous solo albums as Rickolus are genius; just listen. With a new record in hand, Rick had returned with a bookend to his last album Youngster. Entitled Coyote & Mule it seems to be filled with tone poems, aural sketches, and some interesting ideas that have been flushed out into awkwardly cool songs.

Utilizing a minimal amount of instrumentation and playing it all by himself he has essentially produced what could be affectionately called his "acoustic record." A bit lo-fi and a bit bedsit pop, Rick experiments with a whole host of approaches and sounds here to come up with the songs on Coyote & Mule. Think distorted vocals, minimal guitar work, folk music, sad songs, and happy ones. For the most part all of them work and work well proving that the guy really can do no wrong.

Rick has a subtlety and shyness about him that almost makes him seem a bit too twee for his own good. While that might be a detriment to some, I think that's really half of his charm; Rick sounds like a nerdy kid that just happens to know how to write a fine pop song as well as play World or Warcraft. He uses that to his advantage constantly. Coyote & Mule continues Ricks tradition of writing fantastic shy, shuffly, indie rock that's bound to break big at some point. It has to. His ability to make the girls swoon and the guys jealous is a credit to his songwriting ability and his star power. Rickolus proves that nice guys can finish first and it's about time the rest of the world realized it to.