Day 24 + 25, Cocorosie - La Maison de Mon Reve, Cat Power - You are Free

Stars: Cocorosie – 2.25 Cat Power - 1
Favorite Track: Cocorosie – I like the melody to “Tahiti Rain Song,” but I don't like like the way it's put together, nor do I think it is really a complete track, so I will have to go with “By Your Side.” Cat Power - Good Woman
Show: 0$ for either.

Neither of these two albums interested me. I fell asleep three out of four times through You Are Free, and one out of three for La Maison de Mon Reve. I am grouping these two together because I don’t feel I can write a legitimate review on them. So, instead of writing two unproductive bashings, I thought I’d condense it down to one.

I don’t believe that Cat Power’s or Cocorosie’s song writing chops are strong enough to warrant a 12 or 15 track album of virtually nothing but vocals. For example, in “Names,” Cat Power's lyrics and melody are so terribly mismatched that she has to force extra syllables into the lullaby-like melody. Cat Power’s melodies are either uninspired or kitschy, as if she was selling pain medication or Japanese bubblegum. Here is a quick run through of her lyrical triumphs: “Take a chance on true romance when you dance…FREE!” “His name was Charlie. He said he was in love with me. We were only 14. I had to move away. Then he started to smoke crack.” “We do the best we can, so we can do one more thing. We can all be free.” “You were swinging your guitar around because they wanted to hear that sound." “When I see that moon movin' through the clouds in the sky, I get a crazy feelin' an' I wonder why. Oh the werewolf, Oh the werewolf, comes travelin' along. He don't even break the branches where he's been goin’.” Okay, yes, those are taken out of context, and yes, if Bob Dylan wrote those lyrics, I wouldn’t blink an eye. But there is a reason they stick out so much. Cat Power writes these melodramatic, three chord, slow-as-molasses, solo piano or guitar pieces that sound like they should be so goddamn important. But they’re not.

Lyrically, Cocorosie is a little more self-aware and toungue-and-cheek: “And for a diamond ring, I'll do these kinds of things: I'll scrub your floor, never be a bore. I'll tuck you in, I do not snore.” “Skittles are the rainbow. And every color's popular though red gets the most invitations to the Jr. High celebrations.” In their defense, both Coco and Cat always have a message hidden within these seemingly sophomoric lyrics, or a least a moment that makes you go “huh…” but I’m still not sold.

Most of You Are Free is solo guitar/piano and vocal peices, which makes it feel super empty. Actually! You know how it is common for the last song on a pop album to be that quiet, sentimental, heart-to-heart solo performance? Well, that is the best way to describe 3/4s of You are Free. It makes you want the album to end.

Coco and Cat are two female, rock/pop, singer-songwriter groups, and although very different in nature—La Maison... is full of worthless effects and weird production with world music influences and You are Free has punk and pop influences—they also have this in common: their albums aren’t finished. Every song is a taste of what it could be. And I don't mean unfinished in that rugged and raw way; they just don’t seem to be complete musical thoughts. Coco flirts with the use of effects and samples, but never truly runs with it all the way, and Cat doesn’t have enough chords/movements in her songs to warrant being so slow and sentimental—they just come off spiritless. Also, Cat doesn’t have enough juice to really push the albums high-points. “Speak for Me,” one of four attempts at “rocking out” on the album, still seems thin and unfinished, as if she were just cutting a demo to prove to her A&R man that she can write a hit.