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CocoRosie

The Adventures Of Ghosthorse & Stillborn

Label: Touch & Go Release Date: 09/04/2007

22951
John_Brainlove by John Brainlove April 12th, 2007

CocoRosie have always been quite an ephemeral musical presence, pulling together evocative, minimal collections of found sounds with plucked strings, sampled toy noises and semi-abstract lyrics.

Resolutely lo-fi and veering between being hypnotic and cloying, the Casady sisters often tread the line between strikingly original and overly arty and mannered. So it's a pleasant surprise that The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn turns out to be their most fully realised, well-produced and melody rich record yet.

Even with its operatic introduction, opener ‘Rainbowarriors’ is an exhilarating pop song. There are several of them on the album - ‘Japan’ is relentlessly catchy to the point of being almost radio-friendly, even with its extended rumbling, swirling breakdown section, and ‘Werewolf’ is at the same time strikingly memorable and achingly sad. ‘Promise’ and ‘Animals’ also hang in the memory in a way that CocoRosie's previous output perhaps didn't, quite.

But this album never feels like a compromise - it's still full of CocoRosie's trademark oddness: twinkling background sounds, DIY ticks and clicks of percussion (scissors and bicycle bells), children’s playthings, and a distinctly feminine kind of imagination. They've found a more tangible direction whilst retaining the sense of wonder contained in their earlier recordings. This is CocoRosie's best long-player yet.

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