Skittering beats, gorgeous strings, and the fragile falsettos of sisters Sierra Rose “Rosie” and Bianca Leilani “Coco” Casady usher in CocoRosie’s eighth studio album, Little Death Wishes. On “Wait for Me”, the record’s first song, the ladies wistfully sing the story of a young woman whose father “hit her when she acted funny” but “kissed her when she brought the money.” “Wait for Me” is followed by the LP’s longest song, the six minute “Cut Stitch Scar”, a moment that, musically, wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Depeche Mode’s 1990 masterpiece, Violator. Little Death Wishes’ first third is closed out in strong form with “Yesterday”, a track that makes the odd coupling of a toy piano and a police siren sound surprisingly well-suited.
“Paper Boat’s” upbeat chipmunk chorus has CocoRosie taking a hard turn into early 2000s hip hop. The piano driven “It Ain’t Easy” includes memorable and tender lyrics, like, “I know it ain’t easy sometimes on your own, at the end of the road, you’ll find your way home.” The ladies take on bad romance during the soulful “Nothing But Garbage”. CocoRosie’s detour into doomed love continues during “Least I Have You”. Chance the Rapper features on “Girl in Town”, but with cringey bars like, “I see the future like the oracle, you lookin’ like a miracle, and I just want some ‘moracle,” his appearance is quickly forgettable. The piano returns for the album’s closer, “Unbroken”, a delicate ballad that, with its allusions to graveyards and death, manages to tie things up appropriately given the album’s namesake.
The production throughout Little Death Wishes is consistently good, and often great. While song for song the album’s first half is more enjoyable than its second, side B standouts like the aforementioned sister tracks “Nothing But Garbage” and “Least I Have You” manage to pull the listener into Little Death Wishes’ denouement conclusively. For an act now over two decades in, CocoRosie show they still have fresh ideas both lyrically and stylistically.
Rating: 7.8/10
