Reviewed by Norman Smith

This is a seven track debut offering from songster and producer Danny Cope and all in all I have to say this is a hard one to call.  There is undoubted talent on display, both vocally and on the musicianship front and as the final two songs suggest, the potential to write a decent song is apparent.  The overall problem lies in choice of material: adopting a jazz approach to popular music can be very successful, as Phatfish fans everywhere will concur, but Cope takes the music much further.  Mixing up tempos, changing chord sequences mid-stream, cramming in masses of lyric into small spaces as on show here results in inaccessibility to the listener.  In fact, the multiple disturbances to conventional melody and meter are gratuitous and off-putting.  You can't help thinking there's an alter ego, though, and the final song, "Broken" is quite outstanding.haunting melody, sensitive accompaniment, good tune, well phrased.  It doesn't redeem the collective, but it appears to be enough of a remnant to point to future days

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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