CocoRosie released their fourth studio album this month, Grey Oceans. Here’s the background: CocoRosie consists of two sisters, Bianca “Coco” and Sierra “Rosie” Casady, and are known in the oddball-hipster music circles as a freak-folk duo. I’ve reviewed CocoRosie’s first album La Maison de Mon Reve when blogging with the fine people of iGenius. iGenius no longer exists and, for those who do not know, was the blog before Satan spawned Destroyed By Madness. Here’s what I had to say about CocoRosie’s first album:
Let’s see how far my small audience is willing to stretch into the folk, blues, indie, weird experimental music world. Let me first start off by telling you that I enjoy this album, a lot. It’s interesting, it’s catchy, it’s weird. There’s no getting around it. I’m not sure if I like it because of its eclectic weirdness, or some other reason. If you just want a taste of CocoRosie, then the song I would highly recommend as an appetizer is “By Your Side” from the album La Maison de Mon Reve. If you can hold that one down, then dive into “Terrible Angels,” the first track on the album. Its a completely different sound than the first, but equally good.
Some of the tracks just don’t work, though. The ideas are all noble, but in most cases, poorly executed. I can’t really say where this album falls on the radar in terms of history of the band, as this is the first album that I have been exposed to. But an album with this kind of unrefined indie something, in my opinion, can only lead to an even better album a few years later. I’d be interested to see if that has happened yet.
Since then, I have become a larger fan of the oddball style of CocoRosie. Some will give the freak folk creation credit to Devendra Banhart, but he ain’t got nothin’ on these two sisters. The reason that I included the last review in this one is partly due to laziness, but also due to nearly everything written last time holds true for this new album. I bought the vinyl last weekend and haven’t taken it off my turntable since then. It’s a great album from start to finish that has shining moments of catchy indie folk songs interspersed with experimental tracks that instead of being just plain weird, are the eddys in the river that keep you circling in anticipation for what will flow past next.
Between a classically trained opera singer, beaten down indie folk, electronic, and the wounded sound of a children’s toy piano, this is a fun place to turn to. So, if you are looking for something spectacularly different than anything else out there, pick up the new CocoRosie album.
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