With the release of Cope Manchester Orchestra continue the stylistic progression that has been a defining feature of their career thus far. Moving from the multi-instrumental subtleties of Simple Math and pitch perfect indie stylistics of Mean Everything to Nothing to a more basic meat and potatoes rock sound. Though the band may be an orchestra in name, on Cope, they certainly don’t sound very much like one. Though the angst and lyrical artistry of their previous albums stays intact, they have now been joined by the addition of never ending flurries of power chords and distortion.
However, it never falls into the trap of stadium rock cliché. It’s not dumb enough. Frontman Andy Hull’s idiosyncratic vocals and the uplifting spirit never let it sink to those depths. Its existence pretty much justifies the existence of the term “indie rock” in first place, energetically and crowd rousing but too inward looking to be truly marketable. True to the title Cope, it deals with the well-worn themes of human relationships and contradictory emotions. Seemingly every song delves into the depths of a tortured psyche with a barrages of guitar noise.
As an album Cope generally hits more than it misses. Tracks such as “Girl Harbour” and “Top Notch” comfortably stand among the best of their career thus far. Its long time in the making is clearly evident, with it very rarely slipping into uninspired or lazy song writing.
However it’s lack of any real tonal variety can really grate on the listener. For a band that has previously demonstrated that they can do so much, there is no evidence of it here. Though it’s admirable that they have stuck to a well-defined concept, there previous album had peaks and throughout, where energy was built and dissipated – where Cope, in contrast, simply trucks along. In fact as reviewer, it’s hard to pick stand out tracks – with so many of them sounding quite similar. Sometimes it’s hard to appreciate the individual nuances of a particular track since they blend so easily with the others on the album. But clocking in at a mere 37 minutes, making it the shortest release of their career, it never really gets a chance to wear you down as much as it potentially could.
Though not ground-breaking Manchester Orchestra have provided fans with another welcome addition to their body of work, one that is sure to please their current fans, even if it may not convert legions of new ones. They have largely achieved what they set out to do, in their own words, to create can album that is “red and black”. But considering their previous work you can’t help but think of what could have been had they spread their creative wings somewhat more. Without any switch ups in tone to ease off the pressure of the constant emotional battery, it feels in a way incomplete and and less satisfying than their previous albums, and as result Cope fails to reach the heights of some of their past work.