COCOROSIE
The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn
Touch & Go
· Hip-Hopera.
More than ever, CocoRosie prove themselves an acquired taste. For some, the reaction to the band’s music is rapturous (the group’s first single "By Your Side" can make even the most jaded hipster tear up), and for others it induces seizures of disgust. The music of sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady is so weird and wonderful that it’s hard to ignore. Despite everything they’re criticized for (the art school posturing of it all, in particular), CocoRosie is still capable of creating a uniquely bizarre beauty.
Ghosthorse and Stillborn’s best moments include the dream-rap elegy "Rainbowarriors" and "Promise," CocoRosie’s most straightforwardly hip-hop moment yet. Lest we forget their origins in Devendra Banhart-approved freak folk, the remainder of the album just gets weirder – "Houses," penned with Banhart, matches haunted mansion piano with spinning-coin percussion, while "Japan" is at turns aggravatingly catchy and incredibly annoying.
Sure, some of their charm is lost in the change from lo-fi to Technicolor under the guidance of one-time Björk producer Valgeir Sigurosson. It’s also easy to lose patience with Ghosthorse’s silly conceptual arc. "Girl and the Geese" is a pointless spoken word pastiche. But then they go and toss in a true beauty like "Raphael," "all tears fall in the kitchen sink/ don’t speak/ I can hear you," over buzzing audio rivulets as soft and comfy as spun wool, and it remains impossible to ever actually hate them. Once you look past the masks and just let CocoRosie do their thing unfettered (the secret language of sisters united in weirdness), why would you ever want to?
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