TCTC's Second Album Soars... One of 2003's Best
Paul Allaer | Cincinnati | 11/07/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The Cooper Temple Clause follow up last year's "See This Through and Leave" with "Kick Up The Fire" (10 tracks, 53 min.), with excellent results. For those not familiar with TCTC, think Hawkwind-meets-Radiohead-meets-Pink Floyd, but with more guitars."Kick Up the Fire" is making serious waves in the UK, with the singles "Promises Promises" and "Blind Pilots", both of which are pretty straight-forward power-rock tunes. But it's on the more adventurous tracks that TCTC really shines. Take the opener "The Same Mistakes", sounding ambient yet pulsating. Even better is "New Toys", which is what Radiohead should sound like if they had the guts. The album's "piece-de-resistance" is the closing track "Written Apology", an epic 10 min. blow-out of piano, guitar and electronic noodling, fantastic!It's a crying shame that neither of The Cooper Temple Clause's album have been released in the US, but thankfully you can still purchase them on sites like... Amazon! Or you could happen to be on business in the UK, like I was. Either way, if you're a fan of "quality" alterna-rock, you will love this album."
Love Again
Martin Dawson | Royton, Oldham, United Kingdom | 10/18/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Quieter. Louder. Faster. Slower. Softer. Harder. All over the place. Controlled.
The second coming of Cooper Temple Clause is all of these things and more. It represents a significant progression from the admittedly fantastic debut, being more coherent whilst retaining the exhilarating mood swings that made the band so special in the first place.
'The Same Mistakes' kicks things off. Mellow, ambient and quite dreamy. Though the refrain of " You can't jump ship just yet..." is underpined by anxious drumming. And then the track builds. And builds.
Songs start off quietly, explode in a frenzy of guitars or sequencers or both. And then go quiet again. It's almost like a very British take on the quiet bit/shouty bit genius of grunge that was obviously singularly American. This music is a million miles removed from grunge but that dynamic is there. It's there and then disrupted, messed with and just attacked like there's no tomorrow. Emotional in its intensity and beautiful in its tranquility. It's a schizophrenic album that seems to have read the script.
Next is 'Promises Promises' - guitar-led and angry. "Forget about me/And just desecrate everything...".
I don't think I'm wrong when I say that no-one else is currently doing this, anything like this. Sure, Cooper Temple Clause are a post-Radiohead band but that is just an indication of the power and innovation at work here. If pushed, I'd call this band an angrier, edgier Mansun, with apologies for lazy comparisons. And I would like to think that is a serious compliment.
I love the electronica bits throughout the album, the climax of 'A.I.M.' for example, but the best is saved to the end : 'Written Apology'. Ten minutes long, seeming to last half that time and moving from a gentle piano ballad to a pulsating, deafening techno whiteout. Which is awesome in its excitement and brutality. And seals the album.
Finally, then. This album takes its title from an early Philip Larkin poem ("Kick up the fire, and let the flames break loose/To drive the shadows back...) and is an astounding work of poetry and poetic worth itself. "It's in the pain that won't leave you...It's being happy again...". And then you just want to play it again.
Please don't ever change..."
Excellent second album
alexliamw | Oxford | 10/07/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Despite its anarchic title, the new Coopers effort is a tad more considered than their eclectic, sprawling debut 'See Through This And Leave'. On this album, they make further use of electronics and synths to create a smoky masterpiece of skilled and ambitious epics like the 8-minute 'Written Apology' and the building rush of 'The Same Mistakes'. There's even room for a ballad in 'Into My Arms', albeit one that mutates into vicious industrial noise towards the end. Fear not, though, the Coopers of old are still present on the fast and furious single 'Promises Promises' and the tuneful 'Blind Pilots', which mixes a Grandaddy-esque style in the verse with an explosive chorus full of energy and - shock horror - hope."
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1