Rodriguez’s Cold Fact is one of music’s great slow-burning discoveries. Released in 1970, the Detroit singer-songwriter’s debut blends folk, psychedelic rock, soul and streetwise protest music into something raw, strange and completely distinctive. Initially overlooked in the US, the record later developed an enormous following in Australia and South Africa, eventually becoming the centrepiece of the remarkable Rodriguez story told in Searching for Sugar Man.
 
Sugar Man is the hypnotic classic, but Cold Fact runs much deeper. Crucify Your Mind is beautifully bruised, Establishment Blues fires off social observations at breakneck speed, I Wonder became one of Rodriguez’s signature songs, and Rich Folks Hoax delivers its message with little more than voice, guitar and attitude.
 
Produced by Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore, the album surrounds Rodriguez’s acoustic songwriting with fuzz guitar, strings, psychedelic effects and deep grooves without ever overwhelming the songs. More than half a century later, Cold Fact still feels like a record someone has just pulled from a dusty crate and urgently needs to tell you about.
 
TRACKS:
Side A
Sugar Man
Only Good For Conversation
Crucify Your Mind
This Is Not A Song, It's An Outburst: Or, The Establishment Blues
Hate Street Dialogue
Forget It
 
Side B
Inner City Blues
I Wonder
Like Janis
Gommorah (A Nursery Rhyme)
Rich Folks Hoax
Jane S. Piddy
 
CATEGORY SUGGESTIONS:
FOLK / SINGER-SONGWRITER
NEW & SEALED VINYL
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