COPYRIGHT
The Hidden World
Vik Recordings
· Veteran Vancouver rockers attempt a grand statement about drug abuse.
· Just say no.
If you’re only going to release three albums in 12 years, you’d better make sure you’ve got something to say. At least that seems to be the line of thinking behind Copyright's The Hidden World, which the band calls a "two act autobiographical morality play about ‘addiction.’"
The first half of the CD is intended to lead the listener through the exhilarating highs of early drug use, then drop us in the deadly detox dance from hell in the second.
Well, forgive me for saying so, but you can skip the introductory tracks because the whole idea of a concept album alone is enough to kill anyone’s high. Unsurprisingly, The Hidden World – despite its novel, hack, hack, theme – proves true to the rule (the only exception to this maxim is some of Pete Townshend’s goofy mid-Who period, which he wrote when he was stoned, as were you when you listened – which negates the whole, um, concept here).
The only drug-related term that’s really appropriate here, in fact, is "flashback" – the vocals are a dead ringer for the blow-hard melodrama of The Cult’s Ian Astbury, and the songs rival Guns & Roses’ "November Rain" in the ridiculous pomposity department.
To be fair, though, the band has gone out on a limb here. and vocalist Tom Ansemeli has stated that he’s prepared to be condemned for balancing his tales of the ultimate pain of addicts with sonic imagery of their initial pleasure.
Well, I’ll put myself on the line then, as well, by closing with a fitting bit of dialogue uttered by The Sopranos’ resident psychopath, Christopher (from the episode in which he tried to "motivate" the group his girlfriend was producing): "take the rig, spike up and make some music."
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