CocoRosie Noah's Ark CD

CocoRosie: Bianca Casady, Sierra Casady.
Additional personnel: Devendra Banhart, Diane Cluck, Spleen, Gregory Rogove, Jana Hunter, Antony, Ardzen.
After hearing Noah's Ark, any concerns about CocoRosie becoming too tasteful or straightforward after the widespread critical acclaim for their debut album, La Maison de Mon Reve, can be put to rest. If anything, the album errs in the opposite direction: alternately rambling and hypnotic, it's much more somber and insular (despite the presence of such kindred spirits as Devendra Banhart and Antony of Antony & the Johnsons) than the duo's subversively angelic-sounding debut. La Maison de Mon Reve certainly had a dark undercurrent that added considerable sting to its sweetness, but it's much more prominent on Noah's Ark; sad, eerie lyrics like "K-Hole"'s "All of the aborted babies will turn into little Bambies" are paired with equally spooky, mournful music instead of the deceptively light tones of the group's first album. There's a lot of power in the album's darkness, particularly on the apocalyptic campfire singalong "Armageddon." However, Noah's Ark occasionally feels too mannered and unfocused, and overly reliant on the sound effects and toy instruments that made their first album so surreally charming: in particular, interludes like "Milk" and "Bear Hides and Buffalo" sound like noise collages missing the key pieces that would hold them together. That said, the album still has many moments of transporting beauty, especially on the songs that feel less cloistered. On "Beautiful Boyz," Antony's gorgeous croon adds a touch of cabaret to the song's tale of star-crossed jailhouse love, and Banhart's Spanish-language mysticism on "Brazilian Sun" advances CocoRosie's dreamy exoticism, giving it a more organic feel than it had on La Maison de Mon Reve. Indeed, the more natural moments on Noah's Ark are often the best: the title track, "South 2nd," and "The Sea Is Calm" all put the focus on the Casady sisters' delicate singing and playing. A disappointment mostly in comparison to the seemingly out-of-nowhere brilliance of La Maison de Mon Reve, Noah's Ark might fail to charm those not already bewitched by that album, but it won't break the spell for devoted fans. ~ Heather Phares
The sisters Casady set the weirdness bar awfully high on their homemade debut, LA MAISON DE MON REVE, but this inspired follow-up finds the bar ascended as the angels take it on the road, recording everywhere from barnyards to actual music studios. As usual, classically trained vocalist Sierra delivers the delirious operatic vocalizing and plays piano, dulcimer, and autoharp while Bianca coos like a 12-year old vampire Billie Holiday and makes percussive noise from computers and shakers with equal abandon.
The difference here is in the confidence, the polish, and the guest stars: Antony (of Antony & the Johnsons) singing and playing piano on the movingly transgressive "Beautiful Boyz," Devendra Banhart sampled from what sounds like an old scratchy 78 (actually a phoned-in vocal) on "Brazilian Sun," and French rapper Spleen laying it down on the intro of "Bisounours." There are also horses and cats ("Bear Hides & Buffalo"), and off-kilter tambourine and ambient, cricket-soaked fog on the old-timey "Armageddon." No sophomore slump this, if anything it's even weirder for all the added talent, flourishes, and polish.Uncut (p.107) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[T]hey sound magnificently otherworldly....An exotic, quixotic alternative to the current climate of bloke-rock orthodoxy."
Magnet (p.91) - "The Casady sisters' voices whisper intimately, cheap drum machines back slow harp arpeggios, odd sounds surface and submerge."
The Wire (p.55) - "NOAH'S ARK retains their beautiful otherness while coming across as more focused and confident."
The Wire (p.45) - Included in The Wire's "2005 Rewind: 50 Records Of The Year."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.102) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[T]he sisters make merry with harps, light operatic descants and witchy shrieking....CocoRosie sound, blissfully, like no one else."