COOPER - review added 26th August 2009
Album Review: Magic Rocks (2009)
For fans of: Alternative Rock... and vocals of indeterminate gender
Cooper is the band name of Paul Cooper, A Canadian musician born and raised in Toronto. He studied
piano at The Royal Conservatory and percussion with an affiliate of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Magic Rocks was begun in earnest in 2007 with Paul assembling a team of musicians and behind-the-scenes bodies. The album is co-produced by Brad Stella, co-mixed by Joey Turner and co-engineered by Troy Williams. Guest vocalist Jamie Dart was one of the singers who auditioned for the (frankly pretty awful) Rockstar Supernova TV show featuring Tommy Lee, Gilby Clarke and Jason Newsted.
They list their influences as, amongst others, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Whitesnake and Pink Floyd. Some of those sounds certainly come through in the finished product. The outer edge of Led Zep vocal madness is there, mixed with a heap of Floyd experimentation and Aerosmith flamboyance. The sound varies between soft-melancholy and heavy-rocking ball-crushing noise. The overall effect is nutty but full of character - in both a good and not so good way.
'Middle Eastern Dream' pushes the metaphorical starter button and does so with a simplistic guitar riff and a confusing set of vocals. Is it a man? Is it a woman? Seriously, it's hard to tell! 'Black Sheep' is a modern charty track with a cool twang. Again, the vocals are as androgynous as a thin bloke with his winkle tucked between his legs, but it's all jolly likeable. 'Find a Way' is a slow track that starts off beautifully, then cycles between chilled cotton-wool-soft and desperately passionate vocals. It's a well performed song but it's rooted to the spot.
'You Got Me' is a harder rocker that progresses with just the right level of machismo. I'm not so sure about the quality of the guitar solo in the middle, but the singing and drumming stand out as good. 'Old Man' is a cool instrumental piece with no such worries about musicianship. 'I Wanna Know' is a nice if unexciting female fronted rock song. The chorus is kind of catchy but nothing you haven't heard before. The final two tracks are instrumentals. The guitar work and percussion on 'Times Up' are especially noteworthy.
The lesson from this album is that Cooper is good at instrumentals and average at 'normal' songs. On this evidence Paul needs to focus on the instrumental side of things or make his tracks with vocals sound more like the ones without. There's some good stuff here but it's inconsistent as a whole. Probably worth a swift listen though.
Check out... The final instrumental track.
Track List:
1. Middle Eastern Dream
2. Black Sheep
3. Find a Way
4. Bad Intentions
5. You Got Me
6. Old Man
7. I Wanna Know
8. Drummers Paradise
9. Times Up
Artist's website(s): Cooper
