Imani Coppola - The Black and White Album

  by Andrew Carver

published: 7 / 11 / 2007

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Review

A decade ago Imani Coppola burst on to the scene with ‘Legend of a Cowgirl’ and a well-received album of pop, ‘Chupacabra.’ It would be nice to pretend that Coppola’s near-disappearance from the pop field after her initial success was a surprise. In an era that was preparing to launch the careers of performers like Britney Spears, it was predictable that a label would be willing to toss the sort of person who named her first album after Mexico’s goat-blood-sucking night-stalker. With a second major label album shelved, Coppola stuck around New York and released a slew of albums on her lonesome. Apparently smart, funky pop music is such an oddity these days that it’s only shot at national distro is Mike Patton’s Ipecac label. Coppola starts things off singing in her highest register with ‘Black and White Jingle #1’, which layers in a church-organ, synthetic choir and a thrumming bass. Like a lot of what Coppola’s work, the message behind the sweet sounds has a hard edge: “Sometimes life may feel like it's sucking you up,” sings Coppola “but it's not, it may just be you sucking.” She concludes by pointing out “Take a look at what you thought was black and white ... and you will see that there was nothing there at all.” Funky and sassy in the vein of Neneh Cherry, Coppola takes a hard-nosed look at the losers in the sex-sells sweepstakes on the funky ‘Springtime’ then turns the rock up a notch for her mocking look at the consequences (good and bad) of being half-white and half-black on ‘Woke Up White’. Meanwhile, the chorus to ‘30th Birthday’ runs “Today is your 30th birthday ... you’re over the hill, you’re over the hill!” and ruminations on the possibility of a woman president (I’m guessing it was recorded before Hillary Clinton started racing up the polls). Even silver linings have grey clouds in Coppola’s lyrical universe: At first blush ‘Raindrops from the Sky’ is an uplifting ode to being suddenly smitten with a jaunty beat but it weaves in the resulting regrets when the angelic object of her affection turns out to be less than perfect. Coppola also launches a lethal parody at sex-obsessed nu R&B with ‘I’ve Got the Keys to Your Ass’, perhaps the most tongue in cheek song in existence (which cheek is best left to the imagination). Production-wise, all the songs on ‘Black & White Album’ sound ace, and Coppola is in super voice, particularly on the funkier numbers. The only problem: She’s too smart and too good for Top 40 radio.

Track Listing:-

1 Black & White Jingle #1
2 Springtime
3 Woke Up White
4 Raindrops from the Sun (Hey Hey Hey)
5 30th Birthday
6 Let It Kill You
7 Dirty Pictures
8 Keys 2 Your Ass
9 Black & White Jingle #2
10 I Love Your Hair
11 J.L.I.A.T.O.Y.O.
12 I'm a Pocket
13 This Is My Chicken
14 In a Room