2019 Portfolio
A collection of reviews and interviews for Pitchfork, SPIN, and others, along with some excerpts. 2018 portfolio here.
Contact me at joshuacopperman1@gmail.com.
Pitchfork:
Various Artists — Tiny Changes: A Celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’: The timing alone makes Tiny Changes a difficult listen, a last glimpse of when fans and musicians could celebrate Frightened Rabbit without the complication of tragedy.
Sam Fender — Hypersonic Missiles: Fender may yet live up to the praise he’s received, but the lack of focus and mostly formulaic arrangements on this record won’t get him there.
Foals — Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Pt. 2: “Like Lightning” plays like the kind of utilitarian blues-rock that music directors reach for when the Black Keys aren’t in the licensing budget.
Charlotte Cornfield — The Shape of Your Name: With a delivery as authentically conversational as her songwriting, the Toronto-based musician treats even the broadest themes on a person-to-person scale.
Konradsen — Saints and Sebastian Stories: Folk music untethered from tradition, prioritizing well-crafted production over well-crafted songwriting.
SPIN:
Torres on Getting Dropped by 4AD and the Economic Reality of Being an Indie Musician: Torres’s label travails provide a window into the life of a particular sort of mid-level indie artist who may struggle to make a steady living despite having name recognition, positive press, a busy touring schedule, and a contract with a reputable label.
Coldplay’s Adventurous Everyday Life Brings Them Gracefully Back Down to Earth: In the last three years, just about every album from any artist has come with the disclaimer that it’s their most political, and Everyday Life’s inclusion of any message at all beyond “believe in love” or “open up your eyes” makes that true by default for Coldplay here. Even the relentless optimism of the poppier cuts feels defiant instead of ignorant.
Sharon Van Etten Embraces Chaos and Change on Remind Me Tomorrow: “I Told You Everything” plays like a distant epilogue to Tramp and Are We There, even opening on the same piano chord as Are We There’s “Afraid of Nothing.” Van Etten has written more than enough songs that viscerally detail the “everything” in that title, and so when she sings “You said / ‘Holy shit / You almost died,’” she doesn’t feel the need to elaborate.
The National’s I Am Easy To Find Has A Beauty Worth Uncovering: Many of Matt Berninger’s lyrics deal with repressing emotions, but the underlying vulnerability, the need for connection, also drives people to the National in the first place. If the fear that comes with opening up makes the betrayals hit harder, it also makes communal moments like “Rylan” more triumphant.
American Football’s New Album Might Be Their Best Yet: The production and arrangements also benefit from an increased polish. The mix alone is much more interesting — -bright reverb tails accentuate every snare hit, making the drums sound as vast as the outdoor landscape on the cover.
Billboard:
Rob Kinelski Talks Mixing For Billie Eilish, Working With Young Artists, and Keeping His Approach Simple: The praise for Billie Eilish… has largely centered on Billie’s smart lyrics, eerie melodies and fully formed persona — but the quirky, genre-bending sound of the album has garnered nearly as much acclaim.
PopMatters:
Black Midi — Schlagenheim: It’s weird that Black Midi, of all bands, would get this aggressive of a push, but in an era when theoretically inaccessible records gain cult followings, it’s only natural that record labels would eventually come to where those kinds of fans can be found.
The Singles Jukebox:
Billie Eilish — “Bury a Friend”: Underneath the grimdarkness, what really separates Eilish is the sense of humor; the nursery rhyme bridge seems a bit obvious, but after hearing songs like “Bad Guy,” Eilish sounds completely aware of the tropes she is using.
Charly Bliss — Capacity: Anyone more attuned to ‘authentic music’ will be irritated to no end, but that might be the point.
Vampire Weekend — “Harmony Hall”: Manny Marroquin’s mix is intensely spacious — the choirs panned to the left and stay there, the delays ping-ponging then abruptly cutting out… This isn’t happy-but-secretly-sad; it’s what happy sounds like when sad is normal.
Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus & Lana Del Rey — “Don’t Call Me Angel”: With this lemon, you cannot make Marmalade.
Lana Del Rey — “The Greatest”: The cool, detached gloominess of “The Greatest” sends the opposite message to the one producer Jack Antonoff sent years ago; I don’t want to get better, because there’s no time left and no point.
SPUTNIKMUSIC:
The Twilight Sad — It Won/t Be Like This All The Time: “Chris Coady, a veteran of Beach House and Future Islands, was not the best choice for the record despite his stellar work with Slowdive. The drums lack the same punch that Peter Katis’ mix on Nobody Wants To Be Here had, and even the moments that should stand out don’t benefit from the claustrophobic, bright sonics.”
