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Review Sun Apr 01 2007
Blame it all on Coco
CocoRosie
"The Adventures of Ghosthose & Stillborn"
Touch and Go Records
If Yoko Ono produced a CD with Enya and Bjork, with new arrangements of songs by Tori Amos, featuring old-school hip-hop beats and scratching, "The Adventures of Ghosthose & Stillborn" is pretty much what it would sound like. If that sounds like your thing, then go for it. To me, it's the defnition of a concept gone awry, and even if I listen ironically, it's just not that entertaining -- perhaps the altered state of consciousness which led to this mess might help. This CD showed up sealed with a sticker reading, "This is a watermarked CD. By opening it, you agree to not copy, upload, share in any manner the contents of this CD." Uh, glad to oblige, hope it's okay if I use it as a coaster.
CocoRosie, the stage name of the wyrd sisters Casady, Bianca and Sierra, is a high-concept nightmare of sound. (Hey, PR person, I dare you to quote that out of context). The subject matter of the songs here seems to be a twisted fairytale, with sing-songy lyrics about very adult, violent subjects (rape, war, molestation). The songs all run together, like an opera (and there's some fairly pretentious operatic wailing on this record), but it seems to me that you'd need a libretto to explain what the narrative is supposed to be, since most of the vocals are incomprehensible, buried in the production with some sort of phasing filter, sounding appropriately like a shortwave radio distress call. ("Please, we're in dire need of a melody...")
I'm all down with bringing back musical styles from the 70s, but this sort of self-indulgent pretentiousness is what led to the punk/new wave revolt of the latter half of that decade. Hate to be a bummer, dude, but somebody should have stopped this project early on. Worse yet, the promo kit says "the whole record suggests a black diamond in the snow" -- um, okay...
"Ghosthorse & Stillborn" will be inflicted upon the world April 10. CocoRosie have dates booked from DC to California, including Chicago's Metro on May 12, taking gigs and column inches away from a lot of bands that actually play music. Bands like this are pretty much everything that's wrong with music today. Take today's dose of Lithium, wash it down with some cough syrup, rock back, and enjoy.
