City Cop - The Hope In Forgiving & Giving Up Hope (2011)

http://citycop.bandcamp.com/

Summer quietly crawled and is already here with it's heat for some time now, but it seems that it is getting more vicious with each passing day. I can barely think amidst this barely breathable air, but cold drinks and a great record just may succeed in providing a sanctuary from the outside.

"City Cop" is a four piece screamo act hailing from Ashtabula, Ohio. This little jewel of a release has been around from the beginning of January and once I took a listen to it I was really surprised that the band has a low number of listeners, according to Last.fm at least. A dear friend of mine told me that this is a strong contender for screamo album of the year, a definite top three material and I honestly have to completely agree with him.
The whole "City Cop" story begins at an unknown time, since either my investigation skills suck or the band didn't put that information online, when two friends started writing some acoustic tunes. Some time later they were joined by two more dudes, in the process adding more and more layers of different sounds and coming with this amazing final product. What we got in the end is screamo imbued with acoustics and sometimes indie, sometimes mathy melodies. Seeing as how screamo is obviously one of my favorite genres and additionally adding to that my profound love for acoustic tunes due to the work of my own band, this type of fusion really hit a certain soft spot for me. Aside of my vulnerability for these sounds, this release by itself is quite capable of entangling you into its grip in a very subtle manner. The album begins with "X", a chaotic and rending melody screeching toward you from the speakers accompanied by clean and somewhat gentle screaming. One could say a seemingly typical skramz opening, but masterfully done nevertheless and it is in fact what is coming after that which is even more grasping. The violent sounds drop and transform into an almost background like music, while the vocal also suffers mutation and turns into a mellow talking voice, bearing a likeness to that of "Koji", "La Dispute" and even "Thursday". Those few seconds of gentle sounds are again broken by the chaos from the beginning and this up and down shifts in pace and aggression continue throughout the song. Initially I thought that "X" could prove as a perfect example of what "City Cop" is able to perform, but I was grievously mistaken. In fact, the whole album provides you with various angles and maneuvers as you delve through it, as if you are reading a story and "X" was just an introduction. For instance, "Ode to Bula/Flight Lessons" gives you a more melancholic and bittersweet twist in tunes and words, as well as a bit more epicness, since it is the longest song. In contrast, the "Free Bird Part II" shines with a more driving and optimistic energy, ending in an extremely passionate way, while after that you are get to hear track four, "Humanity Is Sinking", a very pissed off and angry song showing some misanthropy in it's wake.
Once you listen to the whole record and the entire story unravels, you feel a strong need to take a listen to it again simply because the initial listen can't provide much understanding about it due to the fact that the album is quite vast in both length and detail. On first glance it does seem long because it features ten songs, but once you start listening the journey seems doubled. This is thanks to two things, one being the amount of different melodies and playing styles incorporated inside, the other being the vocal and lyrics which really provide a storytelling trait to "City Cop". The lyrics are quite amusing and written in a great fashion, but the audio manifestation of the words is just amazing. Be it screaming or talking or singing, whichever the form, the vocal performance flames up your interest as much as the instruments do. Many are instances when you completely focus on either the vocal or the instruments, since both parts of the band shine exceptionally well and it is a shame to give this band just a shallow listen. This is one of those projects to which you come back to time and time again, every time discovering something new.
As I said at the beginning of this review, I definitely agree with my friend that this is one of the best releases this year thus far. And once again, I am really surprised with the low listener count and honestly hope that this writeup will somehow aid the band and attract more people to it. In any case I highly recommend to all of you to give this band a try, you are bound to like it and all I can say in the end is that I really hope we see more of "City Cop" in the future. Enjoy!