TRACK | The Clog – Come Ye & Follow Me

5/5 golden merles “Come Ye & Follow Me“, newly released from Los Angeles Noise/Freak Folk outfit The Clog, is great and conspicuously graceful work. Within, acolytes suss out the true cost of devotion or defiance, a heralding flush with novel melodic elaborations and decaying poise. Well beyond the depths of practical derision, the vocal components are constantly straining to subvert the anticipated cues, willfully shirking the numbers. Yet it is always running adjacent or parallel to precedent in a warm, familiar manner, lugged forward by the steady bass and drum. Elegiac and expansive over the gently strummed guitar, the palette is ornately compiled. Each element — cymbal splash, shared & backing vocal, impaling synth, or lofty swell — donates yet another complimentary hook afforded to the careful arrangement. “To show I’m worthy/And I shine brightHe said my ‘loyalty’s cheap and blind‘”Nothing overstays, each phase in a haggardly but pleasing harmony. In the closing seconds the…