'The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn'
What The Critics Say
It would be very easy for CocoRosie to make merely ornamental music and focus only on the pretty, ethereal sound that was so charming on La Maison de Mon Rêve. Fortunately, Sierra and Bianca Casady have more ambition than that, and they've managed to craft very different identities for each of their albums -- no small feat, especially since their approach is so distinctive. On The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn, they combine the cleanest, most polished-sounding production to appear on a CocoRosie album with a stark hip-hop influence, making this the duo's most focused, and strangest, album yet. The sisters explore this polarity throughout The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn, opening the album with the bold, jaunty beats of "Rainbow Warriors" and following it with the much more delicate trip-hop of "Promise." Switching back and forth between mischievous, endearingly awkward moments and one of breathtaking beauty like day and night, or waking and dreaming, it's almost as if the album posits each of the Casadys' talents as opposing viewpoints. The tracks Bianca takes the lead on are bright and outrageous, like "Japan," which bounces along like the Mad Hatter's tea party as she sings, "Everybody wants to go to Iraq/But once you go there, you don't come back." The song's topsy-turvy feel only deepens when Sierra's eerie background vocals turn into a cheery trumpet melody. Meanwhile, "Black Poppies" and the other songs Sierra dominates delve even deeper into the narcotic chansons of La Maison de Mon Rêve and Noah's Ark. Her singing on The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn is her finest yet, especially on the middle-of-the-day lullaby "Sunshine" and "Miracle," where she has much more power and range than some of her previous kitten-ish Billie Holiday impersonations would suggest. The playful arrangements that are so vital to CocoRosie's sound come into sharper focus on this album, too, with a toy box's worth of sound effects adding poignancy and whimsy to "Animals" and harp and trumpet deepening "Raphael"'s mournful beauty. The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn's densely packed sounds and ideas are a lot to process, but they're what makes this album rewarding on repeated listens -- and what makes CocoRosie's yin-yang, fractured fairy tale sound still surprising three albums into their career. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
After hearing Noah's Ark, any concerns about CocoRosie becoming too tasteful or straightforward after the widespread critical acclaim for their debut album, La Maison de Mon Reve, can be put to rest. If anything, the album errs in the opposite direction: alternately rambling and hypnotic, it's much more somber and insular (despite the presence of such kindred spirits as Devendra Banhart and Antony of Antony & the Johnsons) than the duo's subversively angelic-sounding debut. La Maison de Mon Reve certainly had a dark undercurrent that added considerable sting to its sweetness, but it's much more prominent on Noah's Ark; sad, eerie lyrics like "K-Hole"'s "All of the aborted babies will turn into little Bambies" are paired with equally spooky, mournful music instead of the deceptively light tones of the group's first album. There's a lot of power in the album's darkness, particularly on the apocalyptic campfire singalong "Armageddon." However, Noah's Ark occasionally feels too mannered and unfocused, and overly reliant on the sound effects and toy instruments that made their first album so surreally charming: in particular, interludes like "Milk" and "Bear Hides and Buffalo" sound like noise collages missing the key pieces that would hold them together. That said, the album still has many moments of transporting beauty, especially on the songs that feel less cloistered. On "Beautiful Boyz," Antony's gorgeous croon adds a touch of cabaret to the song's tale of star-crossed jailhouse love, and Banhart's Spanish-language mysticism on "Brazilian Sun" advances CocoRosie's dreamy exoticism, giving it a more organic feel than it had on La Maison de Mon Reve. Indeed, the more natural moments on Noah's Ark are often the best: the title track, "South 2nd," and "The Sea Is Calm" all put the focus on the Casady sisters' delicate singing and playing. A disappointment mostly in comparison to the seemingly out-of-nowhere brilliance of La Maison de Mon Reve, Noah's Ark might fail to charm those not already bewitched by that album, but it won't break the spell for devoted fans. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
'La Maison de Mon Rêve'
What The Critics Say
An enchanting debut, CocoRosie's La Maison de Mon Rêve is a dreamy yet challenging confection of found sounds, folk-blues, trip-hop, girlish pop, and experimental recording and production techniques. The Casady sisters' breathy, slightly different, but equally lovely vocals circle each other atop delicately plucked and strummed acoustic guitars, chirping birds, and fractured beats, making for a sound that is hard to define outside of its own beauty and creativity. A strong Billie Holiday influence colors the sisters' vocals, particularly on La Maison de Mon Rêve's most accessible songs, but even then, CocoRosie isn't so much aping Lady Day as it is invoking her style in unique ways. Layers of crickets, birds, pianos, and intensely sweet backing vocals make "By Your Side" an unusually intimate and spontaneous-sounding, while lyrics like "I'd wear your black eyes/Bake you apple pies" give it a subversive, feminist angle. "Butterscotch" mixes ethereal sensuality with a mischievous sense of humor, and "Good Friday"'s whispered remembrances make it the most romantic moment on La Maison de Mon Rêve, which -- as if it needed any more romance -- was recorded in Paris in the springtime. The unusual found sound samples and percussion that pepper the album give it a uniquely immediate, you-are-there feel that is especially evocative on its more impressionistic tracks like "Candyland" and "Not for Sale." "Tahitian Rain Song" explores the most experimental edges of CocoRosie's music, with its samples of rain, Asian-sounding flutes, and distant vocals all cloaked in a layer of radio static; "Hatian Love Songs" adds a subtle hip-hop influence to the duo's repertoire of sounds. As lovely and distinctive as La Maison de Mon Rêve is, it's difficult to find fault with it. One tiny flaw appears on "Jesus Loves Me," a frayed, bluesy song inspired by the children's hymn; on this track, the soulfulness that makes the rest of the album sound so unique crosses over into a grating parody. Still, La Maison de Mon Reve is so bewitching that it's almost hard to believe that this is CocoRosie's first album -- along with Touch & Go brethren TV on the Radio, CocoRosie is one of the most sonically interesting bands of the 2000s. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
