I think somewhere along the way Caleb Groh grew up on me. He was 16 when he released his first record as Happiest Lion. Since then he has released a number of records including two collections of Christmas songs. But something is different about Caleb Groh (it’s not just the big scruffy beard) and the new record Bottomless Coffee. For starters the record has a full band (guitar, bass, drums, pedal steel, piano) and a dynamic sound (especially on the track “Smitten”), arrangements are more complicated now matching the maturity of Caleb’s poetic lyrics. And I’d even go as far as to say that Caleb’s voice has matured as well. It has filled out (like his beard). With that said there is still a mix of songs ranging from piano ballads to folk to angular rock (again “Smitten”). I wrote about the first single “Catastrophic Culprit” a couple of months ago and you should really click this link to hear it.
Here’s “Smitten” from Bottomless Coffee. Buy it here via Bandcamp ($5 for the digital copy) or iTunes here.
Video from “Hapless Dreamer” also from the new record