Anybody unfamiliar with CocoRosie would instantly be able to tell that they are one of the quirkier packages in modern independent music from taking one glance at the cover of their new album Grey Oceans, which features the pair with fake facial hair and animated expressions. Those newcomers may then be quite surprised when they to discover that CocoRosie, despite their convivial appearance, produce some of the most wistful music of modern times and have done for seven years now.
Their fourth album Grey Oceans continues in this trend, opening with the somber “Trinity’s Crying” featuring melodramatic vocals from both sisters weaving between each other over eery and atmospheric plucked harp and ambient hissing with smatterings of piano. Not the typical way to open an album, but certainly an impressive one its own way. The delicate use of instrumentation throughout the album is its certain forte, adding new depths to songs which on the surface seem like simple ballads. The use African drums rather than the usual drum machine on “Smokey Taboo” for example is a refreshing one; breathing extra life into Bianca’s (“Coco’s”) spoken word-cum-rapped vocals which have become a trademark of the duo’s sound. Elsewhere the use of xylophone, saxophone and violins adds greatly to the funereal atmosphere that hangs over the majority of the album.
This is all well and good, but at times when listening there is an unquashable feeling that CocoRosie are being too melodramatic. Constant use of Sierra’s (“Rosie’s”) operatic vocals can become wearing and their penchant for minor keys is one that may eventually be their undoing. Born directly out of these two pitfalls we get “Undertaker” and “Grey Oceans;” a pair of ballads which, though far from terrible, seem stale amidst an album of better crafted songs of a similar vain. The best example of this is “Lemonade” which, rather than allowing the backing vocals to drift listlessly as “Grey Oceans” does, incorporates them artfully amidst a bed of strings, horns and stylophone. There are a couple of instances on this album when the pair try something a little brighter, but they are best forgotten. On the occasions when CocoRosie have been more upbeat on previous albums they’e given us gems such as “Rainbowarriors” and “Noah’s Ark.” On Grey Oceans we are unfortunately served “Fairy Paradise;” a fairly uninspired pseudo-dance track, which is marginally better than the other light-hearted offering “Hopscotch;” a song which switches jarringly from a sprightly barbershop-esque piano to a grim organ accompanied by yet more histrionic vocals, leaving us with a mess of a song.
CocoRosie have always sounded as though they put their songs together without much thought about what others may make of it, leading them to include soundbytes and other odds and ends that for some people push their sound off the artistic deep end into pretention and conceit, though for many others this is what helped them fall in love with the pair. For those fans the screeching cat samples are still intact on this album, but others who are looking for growth in the duo’s sound will also acquire a certain level of satisfaction. CocoRosie’s sound has rarely been richer than on the highlights of this album such as “Lemonade” and “R.I.P. Burn Face” and whilst some of the others may be missteps there is certainly a lot of ambition there. After four albums CocoRosie haven’t become any less quirky or idiosyncratic than the pair who wrote their first album in a bathtub seven years ago; and this is certainly something to be cherished in today’s often derivative musical climate.
