CITIZEN COPE
self-titled (Dreamworks)
Reviewed by Holly Day

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I think I liked the first three seconds of this, up until the point when it stopped being a cool ascension of droney noise and turned into some weird combination of Lenny Kravitz-style rock and adult contemporary hip-hop. Too much love! Too much sappiness! The instrumental bits are so cloying and predictable that it's absolutely transcendent, or at least it transcends the listener to a world of awkward high school slow dances and spinning mirror globes. Perhaps it's the excessive use of that tinkly bell sound effect that pervaded so much soft rock in the '80s, or maybe it's just the repeated use of the words "Come on, come on" and repetitive voice samples loops that does this album in for me - whatever it is, I couldn't wait to get this one out of the CD player and pop something else in.

© 2002 - Holly Day