I just got CocoRosie’s last album, Noah’s Ark, and can’t recommend it highly enough. Seriously. Wow.

Before reviewing, though, I feel like I need to “explain” CocoRosie, because they are definitely not for the uninitiated (and as you can see by the album cover for Noah’s Ark, not for the naive or easily shocked). Of course, like any band that needs explanation, they have the somewhat problematic trait of defying it and making most attempts to do so look awkward and ill advised. At any rate, here’s what Wikipedia has to say:

CocoRosie are an American duet that formed in 2003. Stylistically they may be assigned to the indie rock, psych folk genres, and are sometimes associated with the New Weird America movement. Sierra plays the guitar, the flute, and leads vocals. Bianca is a percussionist and also beatboxes. They were active for most of 2004, playing dates across the U.S. and making several trips to Europe for tours playing with TV on the Radio, Bright Eyes, Devendra Banhart and others.

Here’s my attempt. Take the crackly sweet voices of Josephine Baker and Billie Holiday, some toy instruments, random lo-fi samples, some pretty dead flowers, a good dose of cocaine psychosis, and a week of rain. Mix them in a hand-made clay pot and serve in a 1920’s Paris opium den after-hours to prostitutes dreaming of unicorns.

Got it?

If that at all sounds appealing, then read on.

I think what I love so much about Noah’s Ark is the incredibly effective juxtaposition of the child-like sound with the dark and often disturbing subject matter and imagery. The album creates a beautiful, fragile, melancholy mood like the sun suddenly peaking out on a cold and rainy day. To this end Sierra and Bianca employ toy instruments, samples of phones ringing or cats, ukuleles… whatever it takes. The music is far different than anything you’ve likely heard. Much of it will remind you of other things, but not any particular style of music. This is music that is less influenced, say, by Jazz, than by listening to an old jazz album on a victrola in the next room.

Like Billie Holiday in her later years, Siera’s voice is constantly on the verge of a whisper about to break, but somehow always stays just within the bounds of melodious. On the track “Beautiful Boyz” she sings a duet with Antony of Antony and The Johnsons and it’s a match made in Heaven (okay… the Heaven of freaks…). Despite the crackling, almost faltering quality of her style throughout the album, there are moments that you realize that, yes, this woman really did used to sing opera. She’s a master of her voice and knows all of the rules in and out… just so that she can break them and write her own. She is at one moment drunken and foggy and the next angelic and powerful.

It’s that dichotomy which takes Noah’s Ark out of the realm of “just plain weird” to “brilliant.” This isn’t an experimental album in the traditional sense. That is, they don’t just cobble this stuff together and it ends up sounding good. This is good because they are targeting a particular sound, or feeling, and experiment with anything and everything to achieve that vision. The last time I felt this way about an album was when I first heard Portishead’s Dummy. There’s probably a lot of comparisons that could be made with that album as well, but really the most striking resemblance is their innovation without sacrificing quality.

So, with an album this different it wouldn’t be fair to have you go out and buy it without first hearing a sample. Luckily Touch & Go Records, and insound have got you covered.

• Noah’s Ark (5.07MB MP3)
• Good Friday from their first album, La Maison de Mon Rêve (4.2MB MP3)

You can buy the album in the usual places including insound, Amazon, and iTunes. Again, I highly recommend this one with the caveat that you understand you should not attempt to listen to it while on LSD. If you do, I’m not responsible for the outcome.