I still remember reviewing DANNY COPE's self-released album "The Way I See It" back in 2003. Leeds musician and music teacher, DANNY COPE has a highly developed songwriting talent that hasn't diminished over those few years. Here on "Month of Sundays" are twelve object lessons in song construction and sympathetic performance that ask a lot of questions of lesser but more attention-seeking exponents. There's a twist in the tale, too. But I'll get round to that.
The style is intimate, almost-acoustic funky small room music, with tinges of folk and country that roll along like gentle hills. The guitar skips and dances, percussion is finger-light, a liquid bass line moves like a bright-eyed snake through the tunes. There are stabs of carefully chosen keyboard sounds here and there. Reference points might include JIM CROCE or TOM VEK (but I'm struggling here and those comparisons make it sound more rough and tumble and less melodic than it actually is). If I said it was easy listening, I wouldn’t be wrong - but I know people who would read that as code for "crap" - and that is not what I mean at all.
The songs are devoted expressions of love, wry observations of keeping faith in mundane times, declarations of happiness, resignation to higher things and wise encouragements among life's insecurities. There's nothing too graphic, no hot breath of yearning or howl of rage. Taken together there are twelve beautifully behaved, soothing and artfully produced songs that put me in a serene and positive mood. "You" stands out for me, with a long melodic line, a slightly mournful grace and a carefully intonated folky guitar part.
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If I tell you that it’s Christian music, with explicit Christian content you might or might not change whatever mind you're in. But like any concept album (Cope wanted to explore the combination of his two great loves in one piece of work) it has to be judged on the whole musical experience. And unlike some of the Christian music I've heard this is in no way the standard abuse of pop formats by clumsy musicians whose motives lie elsewhere. Like the best Gospel Choirs, this music stands up with complete integrity. It needs no excuses and it can be enjoyed by heathens and fundamentalists of all and (like me) no persuasions - simply because it has poetic honesty and superb musicianship.
COPE hooked me long ago with the quality of his songs. Here he is with new songs. expressing his own faith with a warm and gentle voice, and I have to say that the songs and these recordings of them are very fine.
www.dannycope.com
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