Whisperin' & Hollerin' have recently been espousing the potential being realised by several London/ Home counties acts such as Plastik and Stag, but while we're roughly in that geographical area, let's not forget this lot either.
If you're a regular here, you'll remember we heartily recommended COOPER BROWN'S "Friends With The President": one of those stinging, indie guitar albums that there should always be room for.
"Watch This" - one of those excellent, 6-track, it's-a'mini-album!no-it's-an-EP affairs - that seems the perfect medium for short, sharp guitar pop, is a fine follow-up, too, with Bill Brown and the boys getting ever closer to the punk-pop source that spawned their album, but with a little less of the Fraggle-y, FX-box tendencies this time around.
Most of this is swift, yearning, heartfelt stuff. "Watch This" and the quick-riffing "Hamburger" are no-nonsense, state-of-things commentaries coming across like heavenly mutations of Husker Du and latterday Buzzcocks, while the frustrations of "Industry Standard" (which sounds uncannily like old-school Sunderland hardcore heroes Leatherface) are all too tangible. "Give up, lay down, 'cos you never had a chance from the start," cries Bill, and any of us who've ever had our fingers burnt by the biz will know exactly what he's driving at.
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But the two best tracks here are arguably "Earn" and the closing "Contract Killer." "Earn" is the one track here where Cooper Brown slow it down and burn a little and indeed it's possibly the most intense thing they've thus far recorded. "Contract Killer", on the other hand, is a further anti-biz diatribe and for once breaks the five-minute mark. Don't be fooled into thinking Cooper Brown have gone Prog or anything, though: the final two minutes push the riff to breaking point as the song careers into the ether. It's a cool way to sign off and further proof that this sussed, melodic trio have anger and energy to spare.
Unfashionable they may be, but Cooper Brown are becoming quite a force to be reckoned with. "Watch This" confirms the impression
they can break out of being purely local heroes and will be around for the duration. Let's hope so.
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