Self-released
With a wicked two-note bass pulse and the brutal, click-clack clutter of two percussionists, CoCo Beware’s standout track “A Country’s King of Dreams” briefly makes NYC psych-pop quintet Caveman sound sort of like their band name. But a prehistoric beast could not have crafted the lazy-n-lovely vocal harmonies that waft through the track’s sticky-sweet chorus. Strikingly simple and devastatingly gorgeous, “A Country’s King” is far better than anything else on Coco Beware, their debut full-length. Like any good Caveman, they’ve got stones – everything sounds unfashionably loose, as if recorded in a live huddle around a solitary mic; on the glazed-over psych-pop of “Decide,” you can feel the mist wafting off the homely snare and strangled strum. But CoCo’s more style than substance, and there ain’t much meat on its bones.
