It's a fine line between love and hate
The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn is the third album from the Casady sisters, Sierra and Bianca and what a strange affair it is!
Opening track (& forthcoming single) 'Rainbowarrior' is a groovy little track that comes over like ambient hip-hop and sets a good tone. This is followed by 'Promise', which keeps a similar beat but gives the first inklings that strangeitude is on the way with it's Portishead like verse giving way to delicate and fragile vocal musings. After a strong start things all start to go a little weird with 'Bloody Twins' which features rambling high pitched vocals over a music box backing track. Thankfully it's a short offering that gives way to the best track on the album in 'Japan'. With its punchy rhythm and simple but effective chorus it's instantly likeable and is the epitome of quirkiness.
Sierra's opera trained voice initially comes across as quite annoying but the more you play the album the more it seems to make sense in the context of a complete body of work. There's an extremely fine line between art and pretentiousness and every time I listen to 'The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn' I reach a different conclusion as to which it is. Ultimately you have to face the fact that if an album can cause you this much confusion then it must be doing something right!
Tracks like 'Black Poppies' whilst fine in the context of the album just don't work as stand alone tracks and you really do have to listen to the whole album to get the full effect. The problem with the album is that after the half way point is becomes repetitive, you either get slow, eerie opera styled numbers or slow, dreamy ambient tracks, over layered with quirky and dark vocals, all of which begin to sound fairly similar. This fact adds another twist to CocoRosie and does little to help me decide the albums fate, it is both uplifting and original and yet frustrating in equal measure. In the right mood you may find this to be the perfect soundtrack and at other times you will want to fling it across the room! Choose your moment to hit the play button wisely.