first listen: cocorosie

Three years in the making, the nomadic CocoRosie sisters have finally completed their fourth LP Grey Oceans. Out May 3 through PIAS Recordings, it heralds a subtle change of sound for Bianca and Sierra Casady that seems almost simplistic and refined next to the dense, emotionally raw content of its predecessor, The Adventures Of Ghosthorse & Stillborn. Clean, classical piano has overtaken the previously predominant toys and harp strings, a new energy provided by recently adopted band member Gael Rakotondrabe, a jazz pianist the sisters met in their native Paris. The swirling, ever-tangled CocoRosie stalwarts of opera, electronica, blues and folk are still here, but have morphed and transitioned, smoothing out some of the DIY fuzz and static of earlier releases. The instrumentation is more solid, more tangible, yet the air has grown mystical; expansive as a forest or the open seas, Grey Oceans is suffused with a tear-kissed melancholy that mingles teasingly with sprite-like faerie mischief and desert magic, touched with soulful, jazz-inflected melodies.

Here’s our track-by-track preview.

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‘Trinity’s Crying’

Layers of subtle, misty hissing and atmospheric harp strings plucked tight open the way, weaving among indefinite duet vocal notes that swirl like spirits awakening into form. Firmly spoken words take over momentarily, iterating very exactly pronounced poetics, only to give way to the softly crooned chorus of the title.

‘Smokey Taboo’

A strong, hypnotic number, humming with understated energy and intricate lyrical imagery. The slow-burning, sexy shamanic beat is overseen by Sierra’s soaring operatic notes as they take on a smoke-rising, totem bird grace, the perfect foil to Bianca’s tight, curling rhymes.

‘Hopscotch’

A looped, ragtime-inflected child’s rhyme, ‘Hopscotch’ is cheerful in a playground sweet-shop jingle kind of way, see-sawing with a high-speed, drum’n'bass-inspired beat played by Argentinean rock drummer and drum doctor Bolsa. Fun, energetic and playful.

‘Undertaker’

A song that shifts and morphs with subtle instrumental twists from the opening. Originally dubbed ‘Pink Balloon Of Time’, this number samples a tape of the sisters’ mother singing in Cherokee that they unearthed in a long-forgotten box of miscellanea. Her otherworldly calls grace the beginning and end of the song, like a shaman overseeing a rite of passage. In between, buzzing bass clarinets and Bianca’s dark, jagged poetry glittering with “stardust” and what the sisters have described as “medieval vernacular”, referencing Jim Henson’s epic puppet masterpiece ‘The Dark Crystal’.

‘Grey Oceans’

Based on a rather well-behaved, uncharacteristically traditional piano score, the album’s title track is given a CocoRosie spin with ghosts of unidentified instruments and ethereal, choral harmonies in the distance, like faintly recalled memories on the periphery. A bittersweet atmosphere pervades, and a sense of tender, perhaps nostalgic reflection runs through Bianca’s lyrics.

‘R.I.P. Burn Face’

The familiar, softened-thunderclap dance beat of earlier CocoRosie numbers appears at last, and soft, bewitching vocals flow throughout. Chiming toy piano notes and warm threads of electronica give the rather striking lyrics a soothing backdrop. Overdubbed French-spoken vocal samples add a layer of subconscious patter, and the building crescendo holds an air of catharsis.

‘The Moon Asked The Crow’

A big, dramatic beat threaded with a seductive, gypsy-like instrumental hooks, blending deft piano twinkles with toy chimes, xylophones, modulated electro rhythms and what sounds like the chimney-hooting rush of a steam engine train. As the iconography and lexicon of the title suggests, there’s a sense of twilight fairytale and darker stories, and the high-pitched, jazzy end notes give the song an exotic touch.

‘Lemonade’

Almost unbearable, glass-sharp chimes, clouds of gloomy piano with echoing bottom-key notes and mournful, wilting-stem jazz trumpets wallow until unexpectedly shifting to let in the sunlight rays of a cheerful, up-tempo sing-song chorus. The intentionally juxtaposed elements of cold/warm moods and rhythms is disconcerting to say the least.

‘Gallows’

Wonderfully mysterious, placing a deathly, haunting tale against and within a tapestry of pastoral images flooded with moonlight, willow branches and streams, crickets and unidentified animal chirping. There’s the sound of breezing winds, folk-strewn plucked strings and, at the end, the swaying of a taut hangman’s rope. A spellbinding number, part-lament, part-dream.

‘Fairy Paradise’

Delicate, falling-petal chimes light the way enchantingly into unexpected, warmly throbbing rave beats. The kind of song in which you can imagine forest spirits and elementals might lose themselves, dancing around woodland fires and singing wild love spells. Beguiling and celebratory, merging nature imagery with euphoric electronica. Fairy paradise? Fairy rave music.

‘Here I Come’

A choppy, looped beat set with bluesy, gospel piano and distorted vocals, this finale pits a high, squeaky feminine voice against fuzzy, androgynous, spoken-word incantations that pour out an almost weary-sounding stream of consciousness, patterned with images that flow from macabre to sweet with each word.

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‘Smokey Taboo’ trailer

Written by: Charlotte Richardson Andrews

Tags: cocorosie, grey oceans

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