CocoRosie is an eclectic sister act with pop and sizzle. Put simply, they’re in the business of entertainment, and with the incorporation of nearly every style of popular music, Grey Oceans is an interesting take on mass appeal. There’s everything from modern jazz, hip-hop, pop-rock, and sweet childlike wonder packed into this piece of new wave, funky, worldly, meditative folk fancy. Aside from the space and time that fill much of this record, Grey Oceans turns out to be an impeccable feat.
It’s incredible just how, in the right hands, chaos can be tamed into a clean sounding final cut. While each track differs from the next in its choreography (“Trinity’s Crying” incorporates exotic strings and simulates the Indian influence of 1960s pop music, or Chinese opera while “The Moon Asked the Crow” lays down a mean dance beat) they are all epic, equally. There is a clear beginning, middle, and end. Okay, actually there is just a clear middle which is really where CocoRosie takes it home for the win. The “middles” are catchy echoes of Euro-folk, (the likes of which sound a lot like the unconventional vocals of Julia Stone, actually).
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The beginning and end parts of all the tracks consist of psychedelic noises and expression. This begs the question: is it art or just another way to run up the time?
By the end of this lengthy album, you are left deep in thought. You might be trying to make heads or tails of what you’ve just heard, or maybe you’ll just be contemplating the meaning of life. The answer of both these notions has no definitive answer and eventually the only conclusion you can make is, “take it or leave it.” Therefore, Grey Oceans epitomizes everything that is unanswerable in life, and it’s great.
(Sub Pop Records, 1013 4th Ave., 3rd Floor, Seattle, WA 98121)