Cautious Clay lights up the Mod Club with his acclaimed new album “The Hours: Morning”

American musician Cautious Clay arrived in Toronto this past week to play a show at the Mod Club, celebrating his latest album release, The Hours: Morning, and to promote its anticipated follow-up record, The Hours: Night, coming out later this month. 

Cautious Clay has been on the music scene for almost a decade after his debut single, 2017’s “Cold War,” came out, which ended up on his first full-length album, 2018’s Blood Type. A singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist—a virtuoso of guitar, bass, saxophone and flute—he’s also an accomplished songwriter and has made a name for himself penning music for Billie Eilish, John Mayer and Khalid, while earning co-signs from Taylor Swift, Issa Rae, and Jack Antonoff.

The Hours: Morning was released in May of this year to widespread acclaim. A genre-blending body of work, the eight-track album bounces from indie pop and soulful jazz, soft and smooth R&B, to hard rock and even punk. A personal record shaped by major life transitions, the album explores themes of presence, identity and slowing down against the pace of society through brilliant melodies and introspective storytelling. 

During his recent Toronto appearance, Clay told the crowd more about the concept for the album, and explained that being an artist is unique because it’s a job that doesn’t have a lot of structure; because of that, every hour of every day has a certain feeling for him, and each song on this album evokes a distinct mood, color and time of day.

An energetic force of neo-soul, Clay was joined on stage by three other musicians—lead guitar, bass and drums—and played to a packed house of eager fans, performing tracks like the slick and soulful “Tokyo Life (5am)”, toe-tapping indie pop tunes “Father Time (10 am)” and “Traffic (7 am),” and the seductive R&B ballad “Promises (9 am),” all off of The Hours: Morning. He included a few fan favourites from older releases too, like the hypnotic “Joshua Tree” and the lo-fi textured “Cold War” from Blood Type, and the upbeat “Dying in the Subtlety” and dreamy “Wildfire” from 2021’s Deadpan Love. He also treated the audience to a heartfelt cover of jazz singer Anita Baker’s 1986 song “Sweet Love,” a beautiful old school number that made you lull and sway in sync with the music. 

A masterful musician, Clay dazzled the crowd as he moved seamlessly from playing guitar, blasting out jazzy saxophone riffs, to soloing on the flute. The audience was in his grip as he travelled through his set, heightening and releasing tension throughout as the crowd danced to thick basslines, infectious rhythms and rapturing melodies. His vocals shone through the night too, soaring through his powerful falsetto and wrapping his lyrics with his rich and soulful tone. 

The concert kicked off with an opening performance by American artist Elujay, whose soul, R&B and funk sound primed the crowd for a feel-good evening of music. A mix of warm and hazy tones underscored with upbeat disco soul tracks and scaling vocals, the set had a strong retro vibe reminiscent of Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye.

Cautious Clay’s The Hours: Night, the follow-up album to The Hours: Morning, drops on October 24. Its feature single, “Fade Blue (11 pm)”, was released in August of this year and is available to listen to across all streaming platforms.    

Cover image: Cautious Clay at the Corona Theatre in Montreal by Monika Cefis