Imani Coppola - The Black & White Album (Ipecac)
1/5
By: Charlie Potter
The approach to the idea of race taken on this album makes me feel a little uncomfortable. The Black & White Album was apparently inspired by Imani Coppola (herself a mixed race or 'black & white' girl) waking up and realising that everyone who surrounded her was white, and feeling that she needed to move away from this. As much as I can see the logic in making a vote for ethnic diversity by being part of it, I can't help but feel that making a decision on such a basis can also contribute to a long term hindering of racial mixing. Surely the most important thing to achieve when aiming for some sort of cultural harmony is establishing that within the community you live in, regardless of what skin colour, race or religion you are? And anyway, the act of one dark-skinned person living in an area of obviously white people contributes to the overall mixing of cultural backgrounds much more than the presence of one more mixed race girl in a big city, no? That is not to say that I think that people should forget where they came from, quite the opposite - that wouldn't be any sort of cultural mixing at all. Overall, yes, of course you might find this a very idealist middleclass English lefty attitude to take. But I think that this itself arises out of the comparative ethnic dichotomy at play in London compared to New York, even though there are certain areas where people from particular backgrounds do clump together in our capital, more and more you can find those clumps spread all over London (apologies for the inevitable londoncentricity going on here) which I think gives me a slightly naïve attitude to the much more complicated ghetto situation in New York.
And it's true that this may seem irrelevant, but it's this sort of issue that shrouds the music for me, and as such complicates the enjoyment. And actually, despite calling this The Black & White Album, under close scrutiny it doesn't really deal with any racial issues, which would seem to make my former rant irrelevant, but it was only the marketing that made me think this in the first place, so I almost feel like Imani Coppola is selling herself on a point that she doesn't really have anything to say about. Whether I got it right or wrong, I've said far more about racial integration in this review than she has on her album. That doesn't mean I'm going to call it The Black & White Review. These songs do have messages, but they are basically really patronising arrogant messages about how to live your life sung in an uncompassionate manner. If the line "when it seems like everyone's being a dick, they're probably not, you're just being a dick to everyone" raises a smile rather than provokes a cringe, then this is an album for you. Personally, as much as I understand the sentiment, I'm not going to take it from this boring person, who also writes on topics such as how little she likes certain attractive women.
The production on this album no doubt has its moments, and there is a smattering of fun ideas present. Coppola's used some good 808 sounds and there are some pretty good vocal harmonies jumping about the place, but despite all this the album still sounds weak - and it's mainly due to the plodding way the lyrics are laid over the tracks.
It's when you get to 'Keys To Your Ass' that you give up completely, as The Black & White Album from here on in is pretty much just embarrassing, full of lines like "I know where to park that trunk". The choruses seem to repeat over and over and are really long, and also so catchy that you don't have to listen to this LP very many times before you feel like you know all the songs really well. None of these are bad things within themselves, but this sound really is the last thing that you want going round in your head. Catchy does not equal good - if I hear anyone say the words 'great pop album' in reference to this then I will be forced to pull the gum shield I keep in pocket out just to stop myself from grinding my teeth down to one bloodied solid white smooth chunk.
It really pains me to be so damning of an Ipecac release, but at the end of the day Mike (Patton, label owner) just has to get over this thing he currently has for rubbish hip hop (and I do mean rubbish hip hop - I have nothing against hip hop itself). Oh sure Mike, there's room for everything, but I used to be able to trust Ipecac - and what a fantastic time that was - but the truth is more important to me than even a glut of Melvins CDs, so here you have it... this just isn't a good album.
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