NICK COPE “THE VERY LONG SHOPPING LIST”
Nick Cope’s adult band The Candyskins flew totally under my radar. Fortunately his current work as a kid’s musician has not. The Brit’s 2010 debut “What Colour Is Your T-Shirt?” was a bit of a hushed revealation around here and it’ll always have a special place in our hearts as one of the Mouse’s first musical loves.
Cope returns this month with “My Socks” and it too is a lovely collection of acoustic soft rock pleasantness, even if it is more reliant on instructional motifs. One song in particular has leaped off the disc; the ode to a grocery store gem “The Very Long Shopping List”. In me it evokes positive tangential thoughts of Bill Harley’s “The Best Candy in the Whole World” and Llama Llama Mad At Mama – specifically because the words “long” and “shopping” are paired together. There also exists a comforting Raffi meets Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke thing going on musically, and lyrically Cope takes advantage of his Queen’s English to pull off a pair of clever food rhymes that singers on this side of the pond cannot manage. And whether you fancy Dick Van Dyke’s butchering of the accent or Inspector Lewis and Sergeant Hathaway’s manner of speaking around Oxford, it’s impossible not to crack a tiny smile at Cope’s inclusion of nifty words like queue and trolley.
Nick Cope continues to grow into his role a purveyor of kindie rock comfort food. And since he’s already done with the shopping, you and your kids should belly up to his table and dig in.
*OWTK received a copy of “My Socks” for review considerations. The opinions expressed above are unbiased and honest.
