Song of the Day : “Higher Every Time” by Cordovas
After a decade of being Nashville’s best-kept secret, Cordovas—a band of road-dogs led by the enigmatic Joe Firstman—have finally delivered a record that feels less like a rehearsal in a Baja barn and more like a fully realized mission statement. Released on Yep Roc Records, Back to Life is the culmination of Firstman’s long-haul journey from major-label “next big thing” to a grizzled, harmony-obsessed leader of a musical commune.
The evolution from Destiny Hotel and The Rose of Aces to this record is one of subtraction. Where the earlier albums found the band shouting from the rooftops trying to be heard, Back to Life feels like a conversation on the porch at 2:00 AM once the lightweights have gone home… relaxed, confident, and unconcerned about what people might think. Firstman, Lucca Soria and company have leaned harder into their Laurel Canyon impulses, trading some of their previous Pop Rock and R&B muscle for a breezy high-desert americana style. It’s the sound of a band that has spent enough time on the road to realize that progress doesn’t always mean getting more complex; sometimes it just means getting better at the stuff that makes people tap their feet without thinking about it.
Side Note: In 2003, Joe Firstman released The War of Women, a major-label debut that sounded exactly like what it was: the work of an extremely talented twenty-something who had just been handed a massive recording budget and the keys to Atlantic Records. It was an ambitious, piano-driven collection of “baroque-pop/rock” and I absolutely loved that record.
Ultimately, The War of Women set his career in motion by proving he could handle the “big stage,” but it also catapulted him into the center of the industry machine which served as the catalyst for his eventual pivot. The pressure of the solo-star machinery eventually led him to leave the polished Hollywood life behind to form Cordovas, trading the spotlight for the collaborative, communal grit of a band. Definitely worth checking out.
While no one would fault me for choosing “Wings” as today’s SOTD, if only for the presence of jazz titan Kamasi Washington on the track, I instead went for the album opener “Higher Every Time.” This track is the undisputed heartbeat of Back to Life (and not just because of the heartbeat-esque bass drum notes that kick it off). It showcases the band’s greatest weapon—those three-part harmonies that feel like a shared biological reflex. True to its title, the song utilizes a deceptive, rolling momentum. It starts in a comfortable mid-tempo pocket and incrementally raises the stakes through layered percussion and increasingly urgent pedal steel swells. There’s a mildly tongue-in-cheek self-awareness to the “higher” motif—a subtle nod to the band’s well-documented pursuit of “the vibe” in all its forms.
The Song
Spotify:
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/song/higher-every-time/1837240770
The Album
Spotify:
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/back-to-life/1837240763