#641 The Coup - Sorry to Bother You

The Coup are potentially pretty brilliant.

The first half of the album is a broadside of obnoxious, indie-party rap, sporting hard-edged Outkast-via-Oakland rhyming over drunken synth loops, buzzy bass guitar, and huge clipped beats, landing somewhere between Spank Rock and Andrew WK. It's fun, in its fucked up way, but it comes on so strong you might be tempted to turn it off and never come back.

Don't. First of all, it'll grow on you. Second of all, you'd miss one of the strangest, most perfectly executed second-half about-faces I've heard in a while. One moment you're listening to the minimal-maximal stomp and chant of Land of 7 Billion Dances, and you've barely notice that its tone's changed as it burbles itself to sleep. Then lithe strings come in, unexpected but natural, and a heartfelt, beautiful little spoken word serenade emerges, complete with perfectly-delivered female backing. It's something straight out of Broken Social Scene circa You Forgot it in People.

Its like waking after the party where you partied way too hard for the third night in a row. Not the morning after, when you're hung over and swearing never to do this again. That day is awful. This is like skipping that day and waking up the morning after that, when you wake up feeling great, and knowing you mean it this time, and maybe things will change. After Violet's dulcet tones waft off This Year rides upbeat Go Team! ready motivation horns and "all rights!" and We've Got a Lot to Teach You Cassius Green delivers a bizarre, sincerely parable of identity.

Then there's Long Island Iced Tea Neat, which is just my goddamn jam, the perfect bass riff, the perfect clattering beat, the perfect flippant fuck-you delivery. I walk faster just thinking about it.

Usually a fun album is superficial: you know what you're getting and what to do with it right out of the gate. This is a rare, richer album that demands a bit of listening before you realize what an interesting playground it's built for you 4.5/5