COCOS LOVERS – ELEPHANT LANDS ALBUM REVIEW

You don’t even need to listen to Cocos Lovers’ second album to enjoy it. Just looking at the artwork for the Deal based band’s record is enough. If there was any one album to argue the case for physical copies over ephemeral, inconsequential mp3s, it would be “Elephant Lands”. I mean, just look at it.

From its front and back covers which imitate a postcard from the days of exotic empire to the superimposition of band members on a verdant waterfall scene inside, this album is a piece of excellent craftsmanship before you even hit “play”.

Of course, the real beauty of this record is in the 14 songs that form “Elephant Lands”. Where its predecessor, “Johannes” based itself principally in southern America with its fondness for spirituals paramount, this sophomore album’s home is Africa: sub-Saharan Africa to be precise.

African music is in vogue at the moment. Paul Simon, Sting and Damon Albarn have all paid homage in the past (and there’s word of Albarn doing a follow up to his excellent “Mali Music” as I type). But more recently the African influences have been picked up by bands like Vampire Weekend, The Dirty Projectors and Boy Mandeville.

But rather than simply concentrate on complex rhythms, as those three bands (and more) do, Cocos Lovers aim at something a little more authentic. Just as Fairport Convention used modern instruments to recreate traditional folk songs on “Liege and Lief”, Cocos Lovers use western instruments (flutes, violins and guitars) to convey the spirit of Africa. And it works well. Very well indeed.

Back on “Johannes”, the concerns of Cocos Lovers were to make a break for freedom: to reject the cares of the modern world. This theme returns on “Elephant Lands”. You’ll find it in “Door to the Andes” with the lines “they sold you down the river/so drown or swim ashore”. Tellingly the “sink or swim” lyric returns in mid-album track “Blackened Shore”.

The album continues the band’s quest for freedom with lines like “can we go far from here” (“Blackened Shores”) , “can I fear not this haunting world” (“Fortuna”) and “I’m sorry for the mess we made/we spent our lives asleep” (“Bow and Arrow”).

“Elephant Lands” is littered with imagery from nature (rivers, the moon, roses and, of course, elephants). But while lesser bands turn to such points of reference for want of anything else to say, nature forms an integral part of Cocos Lovers as artists. You cannot have escapism from the perils of modern life without it.

As nature is defined in cycles, so this album reflects on life’s changes. It’s there most notably in “Fortuna” with its reference (like in Carl Orf’s famous choral piece) to the wheel of fate – or the wheel of fortune as Nicky Campbell knew it.

Fortune appears again in “Yellow”. In fact this theme of the cyclical nature of good fortune, of happiness taking its turn with sadness, is pivotal to the “Elephant Lands”. The result is a more relaxed sound where patience is the prince of virtues.

“Hold on, hold on, hold on, my love, hold on” runs one line from “Door to the Andes”. The message is simple: fortune’s wheel will turn back round eventually.

The last three songs of the album (including “Father”, a song from the Cocos Lovers archives) feature meditations on the passing of fathers (“a son’s peace was made in death” from “Father”, “my father he died so long ago” from “Anchor to the Moon” and “a friend has gone/father now to none” from “Twilight”). Notably, the album is dedicated to “David Hutton Senior”.

The most poignant of this triptych is “Twilight”, the album’s closing song which opens with a mournful flute solo before lilting into the most beautiful of eulogies. It even rises into something of a celebration with a more up tempo “but you leave us with a shining light”. The track ends with a ghostly detuned piano playing a heartbreakingly simple melody.

It’s the perfect end to a breathtakingly perfect album. More than just take you on a musical trip to another part of the world, the album ends on an otherworldly note. The most beautiful of things.

Find out more about Cocos Lovers on the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cocos-Lovers/73930229698