Cold Fact (Bonus Track Version)

iTunes Review

A deliriously eclectic artifact of the psychedelic era, Cold Fact is the debut of Detroit singer songwriter Rodriguez, a Detroit factory worker with a distinctive gift for incisive songwriting and elaborate psychedelia that evokes genres as diverse as salsa, country blues, and Spector-style studio pop. Rodriguez’s brittle but pleasing vocals and surreal lyricism most nearly recall Donovan’s late-period excursions into hippie mysticism, yet Cold Fact is far from derivative, and is particularly notable for its adventurous production and inventive arrangements — many of which were the product of Rodriguez’s collaboration with Motor City guitar virtuoso Dennis Coffey, whose distortion-drenched lead work provides some of the album’s most fascinating musical moments. Tunes like “Hate Street Dialogue” and “Inner City Blues” provide a compelling portrait of Detroit as a decaying city on the brink of civil unrest. It bears the stamp of its era and Cold Fact remains a vivid and compelling document of a particular moment in musical and cultural history.