Album Review: Geckøs - "Geckøs"

Inspired by Americana, Spanish and Irish folk, Geckøs is a pleasant detour for M. Ward, Howe Gelb, and McKowski, but it will simply be a pleasant detour at best.

Org Music - 2025

Geckøs is the new supergroup formed by the Cali-based folk artist M. Ward, Tuscon-based songwriter Howe Gelb of Giant Sand fame, and multi-instrumentalist Mark McCausland, aka McKowski. According to the three, they seemed to form at the right place at the right time and decided to make a new record together, simply titled Geckøs. As a massive fan of Ward's, I was pretty intrigued with any new project he's a part of. He has dabbled with supergroups and collaborations in the past, whether it's with Zooey Deschanel in She & Him or with Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Jim James in Monsters of Folk. As for Geckøs, there are influences of Southwestern, Spanish, and Irish folk and Americana. I'm not exactly familiar with Gelb or McKowski, but I thought I'd give Geckøs a whirl and see where it'll take me.

The band's influences and overall presentation provide the warmth, dry beauty of the Southwestern desert similar to that of artists like New Mexico duo Calexico. It features the warm, inviting, and comforting guitars and singing you typically would expect from M. Ward's previous material. The production is very pleasant, pretty, and dreamy and I do like the sequencing in between tracks, making the album a seamless experience from front to back. There's a mix of Spanish and English lyrics throughout the album and Gelb and Ward will often trade off singing in between entire tracks or on parts of certain tracks. "Dance of the Gecko" is an example of this, where the two trade off in a starlit trek across the desert sand with acoustic guitars and percussion. The piano ballad "Scoundrel" is especially a remarkable, gorgeous instrumental that stands out in the track listing for the better. "Lo Hice" is one of my favorites, where M. Ward's vocals and guitar shine in the acoustic instrumental.

There are plenty of other pretty moments across the album, where the instrumentation is lush and nice on the ears. Aside from that, there isn't much else to say about this record. The trio do a good job at creating this mix of Spanish and Americana folk but everything is played by the book and is pretty one dimensional. Ward has a tendency to stay in his comfort zone throughout the second half of his career and as much as I do enjoy his records, Geckøs doesn't exactly push the envelope enough to warrant coming back to again and again. It's well executed, pretty on the ears, has great craftsmanship, and I'm sure they had fun recording and producing this album, since they clearly have a love of the genres they're embracing here. Geckøs is a pleasant detour for all three of these talented artists, but it will simply be a pleasant detour at best.

My Rating: 6 / 10

Favorite Songs: "Scoundrel," "Lo Hice," "Dance of the Gecko," "Wedding Waltz"