Cobra Starship - While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets (Decaydance)
2/5
By: Christiana Spens
Apparently influenced by "yellow pills, Paris Hilton and green M&Ms," Cobra Starship is Gabe Saporta, a Uruguayan-born New York-raised son of a scarf-seller who peddled the streets to support his son's "habits", as he pursued his musical dreams. So far, so the beginning of a Latino "Requiem for a Dream".
Incidentally, Cobra Starship happened to support 30 Seconds from Mars - i.e. Jared Leto, who starred in the said movie - on tour... must have been an interesting trip... why are there so many bands who cite the extra-terrestrial as influential? Must be those yellow pills...
The story goes that after finding his life meaningless and listless, Gabe went on a little trip to the deserts of Arizona, where an alien cobra bit him, told him about Armageddon and advised him to help mankind bow out in style - "By teaching hipsters to not take themselves so seriously and by telling emo kids to stop being pussies."
So has Gabe fulfilled his mission? Does the album justify its mythology?
It does... But I'm left feeling I'd rather see the film than hear the album. It's movie music. Without the movie.
It's music that works with big-budget Hollywood movies, and their 'Bring it On' was used in 'Snakes on a Plane'... It's pop music at its most sensational, ridiculous, and fun. 'The Church of Hot Addiction' has an electric quality, and it's very catchy. The music reminds me of Mika, the Sounds, Gwen Stephani and 30 Seconds from Mars also... I can't really imagine it in any context other than as a soundtrack for a film, to be honest... "The city is burning, so the story goes..." - I feel like I need to see the film it describes - the pictures, the people, the parties... To really hear the whole story...
It's provocative and stimulating music, but it needs something else to work. Soundtrack music needs some action to illustrate it, and this is definitely movie music... Without a filmic addition, the music works just as fun background pop music. It's not music that has a clear focus. It's part of something else, and dependant on something else.
Maybe I need some of those yellow pills to really get what they're singing...
Stream three tracks from 'While The City Sleeps We Rule The Streets' HERE.
Artists in this article: Cobra Starship
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