LEARNING TO COPE

                            Joss Cope plays The Lexington, London 10^th January 2019

What are bands for? To show a brotherhood of souls celebrated,

Men of a certain age showing simply the patterns within their own hearts,

And so it proves at The Lexington, London with Joss Cope and his cohorts,

Members of cult band Dexter Bentley; song primed, they stand ready

To serenade and to master both the night air around them

And a receptive crowd eager to each in turn play their part.

With Richard Bentley on bass, Mark Shaw on lead, and Simon Dye

On the keyboards, Ean Ravencroft’s stately drumming leads the strumming

Cope into song; they merge, a tested unit, at once, as there is nothing loose here;

All’s tidy, as Cope’s Unrequited Lullabies swoop and settle, making connections

To which everyone there can belong. Learn to Float sashays in with its Bowie Blue Jean

Style vocal shimmer, its perfect pop underlining the kind of fight we all face,

These are Brexit countered love songs Cope explains and one can read between

Every lyric of how today’s current crisis will mark and scar every surface and inevitably

Leave  a stark trace. ‘Realise we’re all slowly sinking’ he sings and you can appreciate

How the island on which we are stumbling finds its true echo with the broken land

Kept inside. And yet with these musical compadres at hand, the song’s jauntiness

Still assists us, the act of positive thinking and singing is at least an audible way

To survive.  She’s Gonna Change Your World serenades, but is she the past

Or a woman? Both are detected as this passion fuelled tale is revealed.

The agenda is set in which life and fate find joint focus and Cope and Band

Combine deftly a resonance all should feel. This group are not kids

And seeing them play, it feels noble. Their ease of performance

And sure fired skill holds great charm. They do not pretend with these songs.

Delivery is part of the message. Learn from the tales in their telling

And protest, though gentle can still exert full alarm.

Scales Falling cries through the notes as Bentley, Dye and Shaw forge emotion.

Ravenscroft serves the sweet feeling with his rhythmic array and control.

Cope’s call to the real after the long dream has ended is as affecting

As the silence surrendered after the losing of the only one you would hold.

‘She’s not what you think about her’, he sings and we can hear separation.

The upsurge of the chorus is indie song craft keeping score.

Photo by Paul Hudson

One can hear forty years of musical changes, from The Beatles, Byrds,

And The Monkees, through the Lotus Eaters, all the way up to the angels

That Boo Hewerdrine’s waited for.  Healed is pure pop. Indefinite Particles,

Powers. Shaw solos discreetly, Bentley authoritative bass underlines,

Dye colours each verse with exuberant texture. Ravenscroft supervises

As the band campaign for ascension in variations of conventional 4/4 time.

Nobody knows This is Everywhere Brexits through, full of shades of Nick Lowe

And Costello. There is a taint of The House of Love and The Triffids rising like scent

From each sound. A touch of The Stone Roses too, unfurled on an increasingly

Inspiralled Carpet as Cope’s invocation to ‘Step outside and see whats really there..’

Grows profound.  A Guy Like Me, is the gem that sets the evening’s sights into focus.

Cope’s call and confession is Johnny Cash meets Lou Reed.

It is a song made for the charts, if only the proper charts still existed,

With its superbly phrased statement economically dressed in slim jeans.

It is a stammer and strut,a  defying cry for the  sage ones, who have turned

Each dark corner and pulled down their shades to sunlight. One can hear the speedway

Ahead, as well as the lawnmower, rattling. One can see the leather jacket, the brylcream,

Captured in sound, through insight. So, here is knowledge and pop,

And knowledgeable pop through the ages, in a relatively short set,

All music that has passed the test is conveyed. Buoyancy and regret.

Vibrancy and clear warnings, neatly packaged now and presented

In a finely wrought form these friends made. Your Broken Heart Is Not For Sale

Closes all,played by a band who know song craft . Shepherding this most accomplished

Of albums across the wilderness we’re now in.  We have been played something here

That moves beyond entertainment, as there is also instruction

Of how to survive and begin, whatever we need to conquer those

Who oppose us. We are the masters, monarchs of the lost, who’d be found

If we could only see through the smoke that is bred by all of those

Who would burn us. As Joss Cope now teaches; ‘ Behind the lines of laughter/

Lies the frown/Upon the face of he who wears the crown..’

Bands are Preachers. But unlike God’s, they’re the swimmers in a sea

Of constant change who can’t drown.  Listen to the record and learn

Just what it is to breathe sweetly, even in a bitter time

There are echoes of salvations to come, within sound.

                                                                                                                   David Erdos 11/1/19

1. music
2. merch

Unrequited Lullabies

by Joss Cope

 

herbert_sherbet Having been a fan of Julian’s for the last 35 years I’m happy to support Cope the younger !!!!!
“Learn To Float”, “Turned Out Nice Again” and “Nobody Knows This Is Everywhere” are thee stand out tracks for me. Although, with regards to “Nobody Knows…” I was expecting a cover version of the old Teardrop Explodes demo of the same title!!!
A good album n hope it does well for Joss.
Big up to the brothers Cope !!!!! Favorite track: Nobody Knows This Is Everywhere.

  £15 GBP

  £7 GBP

  £7 GBP