Manchester Orchestra have always been about the light and the dark; about positioning the loud and the soft just so; about carving out a perfect position on the Venn diagram of alternative, indie-rock buzzwords.
But on their fourth full length Cope, the Atlanta five-piece go all out.
No more poking their toes over the edge of the precipice, steeling their nerves for a glimpse down and wondering just how far the fall is. This time, they run and jump right off the damn cliff into a churning sea of guitars, guitars, and more guitars.
It’s the band’s heaviest album to date, with the lead single and opening track ‘Top Notch’ dishing out the perfect sample of things to come.
The heavier sound isn’t something fans of prior albums will easily embrace – there are no piano ballads or introspective slow builds and slow burns to be found on Cope – but it’s still a melodic, intricate, and tightly stitched together album.
Highlights come in the form of the grinding ‘Indentions’ and harmony-laced ‘Girl Harbor’.
But as gifted as the band are when it comes to hooks, Cope tends to feel a touch repetitive towards the back end. The big moments don’t feel as big when they come constantly.
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Cope is a showcase for a band that has circled the sun more than a few times and has plenty to show for it. They’ve scrapped it out and cut their teeth and worked and worked and worked, and now have an impressively clean, synchronised album as their reward.
Listen to ‘Top Notch’ from Cope here:
