Citizen Cope Clarence Greenwood Recordings CD

When a singer/songwriter fights the big record label -- in this case Dreamworks -- because it doesn't understand the artist's vision, then the artist buys his way out of a contract so he can go somewhere that cares, it's admirable and has a "this must be good stuff" allure for sure. Give one listen to The Clarence Greenwood Recordings and you might have a guess at why Dreamworks "mishandled" Citizen Cope. Ponderous, unfinished, and pointless when it's at its worst, the album Citizen Cope -- singer/songwriter Clarence Greenwood's alias -- fought so hard for is filled with metaphors and characters that are murky. Nothing in the surrounding context suggests you should try to figure them out either. A lost soul who falls in love with a billboard is the subject of "Pablo Picasso," but there's no insight, no pathos, and no point. It's sad when anyone mistakes inanimate objects for someone who loves them, but Citizen Cope's use of the character is so detached it borders on exploitive. The timely "people wanna bomb us" number, "Bullet and a Target," is the album's centerpiece and single, but it's just another shock-value laundry list of depressing situations -- Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" for the Dave Matthews generation. It also has one of those horrible Parental Advisory sticker-dodging moments that kept rearing its ugly head in 2004. The "father" in the story -- another faceless character who doesn't get fleshed out -- just doesn't give a F word, which is removed, leaving an audible blank space that the lyric sheet claims should've been filled with the word "enough." Turns out the devil you don't know (Arista in this case) might be as bad as the devil you do know (Dreamworks) and that the music artists rescue from big business isn't always worth hearing. ~ David Jeffries

When a singer/songwriter fights the big record label -- in this case Dreamworks -- because the label doesn't understand the artist's vision, then buys back a record so he can find someone else who cares enough to release it, it's admirable and has a "this must be good" allure for sure. One listen to The Clarence Greenwood Recordings and you might have a guess at why Dreamworks said "no." It's a wandering album, one that Greenwood's fan base can connect with, but more difficult for everyone else. The timely "people wanna bomb us" number, "Bullet and a Target," is the album's centerpiece single; it presents a shock-value laundry list of depressing situations, Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" for the Dave Matthews generation. Elsewhere a vagrant falls in deep love with a billboard and D'Artagnan meets his match. From there it gets more undecipherable, but it's a record he fought hard for and his fans will love trying to figure it all out. ~ David Jeffries

Live Recording

Citizen Cope: Clarence Greenwood (vocals, guitar, Fender Rhodes piano, keyboards, drum machine).

Additional personnel: John Ginty (piano, organ, keyboards); James Poyser, Daniel Parker (piano, keyboards); Jason Yates (Fender Rhodes piano, organ); Me'Shell Ndegéocello, Preston Crump, Mike "Funky" Neal (bass guitar); Dennis Chambers, Rev. Brady Blade, Paul "Buggy" Edwards (drums); Bashiri Johnson (percussion).Uncut (p.103) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[H]e marshals influences cleverly to create a refreshing, contemporary roots stew."