Hmm. I’m listening to this album ((“Grey Oceans”) for the first time at the moment. My only experience of Cocorosie to date was a friend in Berlin telling me he felt compelled to walk out of their show there, because he felt that they were being overly pretentious for the sake of being pretentious. I think his exact words were, “it was painful.”
I’m on the 3rd track by this point. Joanna Newsom seems to be the easiest point of reference I have so far. I like Joanna Newsom, but as with her music, the Casady sisters have a pretty distinct vocal thing happening (Hi Antony!). “Hopscotch” is a pretty great song. They’re definitely brave when it comes to throwing lots of supposedly disparate things into the mix. I like this a lot more than I expected I would, actually. Sometimes the singing/phrasing feels a little too imitative of Joanna Newsom, and that’s a little distracting, for some reason.
The music is actually less “freak folk” (I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean, exactly) than I anticipated. It’s mostly beautiful, and inventive. I could sorta see how maybe an album like this might not get a fair shake, but should probably have gotten as much attention as, say, the last Dirty Projectors album.
I kinda hate the artwork. I don’t think it does the music justice. I don’t hate the artwork because I’m a man, and I want women to be sexed up on an record cover, I hate it because it makes me think the record would contain music that would be unlistenable, and this music is beautiful and interesting. I like gender-disrupting/confounding artwork, I just think it’s also not the worst thing to hint at what’s happening on the album.
The textures and instrumentation are really breathtaking in places, and even though I might not always dig the vocal affectation, six tracks in I can see how this album didn’t get anywhere near the praise and attention it deserved. “R.I.P. Burn Face” is great.
I’m not sure what Jamie Stewart is afraid of – it feels good in here!
Thanks for bringing this record to my attention, and for facilitating this discussion.
Hmm. I’m listening to this album ((“Grey Oceans”) for the first time at the moment. My only experience of Cocorosie to date was a friend in Berlin telling me he felt compelled to walk out of their show there, because he felt that they were being overly pretentious for the sake of being pretentious. I think his exact words were, “it was painful.”
I’m on the 3rd track by this point. Joanna Newsom seems to be the easiest point of reference I have so far. I like Joanna Newsom, but as with her music, the Casady sisters have a pretty distinct vocal thing happening (Hi Antony!). “Hopscotch” is a pretty great song. They’re definitely brave when it comes to throwing lots of supposedly disparate things into the mix. I like this a lot more than I expected I would, actually. Sometimes the singing/phrasing feels a little too imitative of Joanna Newsom, and that’s a little distracting, for some reason.
The music is actually less “freak folk” (I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean, exactly) than I anticipated. It’s mostly beautiful, and inventive. I could sorta see how maybe an album like this might not get a fair shake, but should probably have gotten as much attention as, say, the last Dirty Projectors album.
I kinda hate the artwork. I don’t think it does the music justice. I don’t hate the artwork because I’m a man, and I want women to be sexed up on an record cover, I hate it because it makes me think the record would contain music that would be unlistenable, and this music is beautiful and interesting. I like gender-disrupting/confounding artwork, I just think it’s also not the worst thing to hint at what’s happening on the album.
The textures and instrumentation are really breathtaking in places, and even though I might not always dig the vocal affectation, six tracks in I can see how this album didn’t get anywhere near the praise and attention it deserved. “R.I.P. Burn Face” is great.
I’m not sure what Jamie Stewart is afraid of – it feels good in here!
Thanks for bringing this record to my attention, and for facilitating this discussion.