Album Review: Liz Cooper & The Stampede Show We Are All Window Flowers
When an artist describes their album as “Window Flowers is a collection of music that deals with the weight of mundanity, and politely tells it to fuck off,” then I’m all in! Yet, the curiosity of Liz Cooper and The Stampede’s Window Flowers is that it sounds twisted for being a record all about how dull boredom is. It is as if Liz recognizes that there is something eery to feeling like nothing.
It is hard to describe boredom. Suddenly, everything around you feels like the damper, dingier version of itself, and you are like a bouquet of flowers by the window: vibrant but stuck in place and trying not to wither. Thus, Liz Cooper has a point in dousing tracks such as, “Sleepyhead,” “Walls of White,” “The Night,” and “Motions” with chords that are fluent but slightly unnerved. From “Kaleidoscope Eyes” to “Hey Man,” the album is lustrous in its Nashville feels, but, more importantly, in it description of feeling “off,” which is why the record never settles in atmosphere. Instead, this record makes you want to move around in your room/ headspace to figure out if fun can be rediscovered through what you have.
Liz Cooper & The Stampede – Fondly & Forever
Vocally, Liz Cooper feels smart. Yes, I know that “intelligent” is not often used to describe how a voice sounds good. Yet, from Courtney Barnett to Phoebe Bridgers, there are so many artists whom use their voice to emanate a higher, more sensitive intellect, which you can oddly hear. In “Lights” and “Outer Space,” Cooper chains her voice like a series of emotional rings bound together to pulse her belled lyrics. She is consistently looking to feel alive, and that is, in some ways, why she comes off “smart”. If you want to survive life then you have to figure out how to combat boredom because it can be more numbing to your heart than sadness or anger.
Liz Cooper & the Stampede – Hey Man
Spiritually, boredom feels like a silent killer. Fear, sadness, and rage can all come from boredom, and the feeling that being tired with your life will last forever. Yet, each chord of Window Flowers waxes and wanes you back to life, with Liz Cooper & The Stampede being the moonlight to guide your mind’s tides. For More Information On Liz Cooper & The Stampede And To Buy Window Flowers on August 10 Click Here.
