London-based The DB Coopers build recent album The Return of The DB Coopers around the enduring mystery of the 1971 D.B. Cooper plane hijacking, using the infamous disappearance as a loose conceptual thread for their rock songwriting. Released on limited-edition vinyl alongside its digital edition, the album brings together jangly power-pop hooks and tougher alternative rock textures.
“The 62” opens the album in resonant form, with the declarative vocals — “I saw a different place, tied up in usual space” — melding with jangly, crisp guitar allure. The ensuing “do you see that light in the distance?” vocal questioning stirs in its soaring delivery, injecting a sort of power-pop charisma amidst the alt-rock and jangle-pop fusion. Ensuing track “Angel Downtown” revels with a fiercer, more wailing guitar presence. The organ-laden hook delights, with sturdy guitar pulses and a beckoning “so come on now save your sisters” vocal driving to the “she’s an angel … but she’ll bring you down” ardor.
Another standout track, “Kinetic” shows the band equally capable of moodier introspection. Dreamy vocals and twangy guitars complement perspectives of how “it’s hard to get along these days,” moving thereafter from retrospections on glory days into a more bustling rock vigor. “Then we cheat, and we lie, and we make up that we don’t know how it goes,” the vocals enthuse there. “Forstan” compels as well, its panting rhythms and fuzzy guitars emitting a contagiously brisk sound, reminiscent of ’90s alt-rock in its “how come I’m sinking quickly?” introspections and resulting vocal layers in the title-bearing hook. The Return of The DB Coopers is a thorough rock success from The DB Coopers.
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“Forstan” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
