Kopek are one of those Irish bands who seem to have been around forever. Having toured relentlessly in the mid 2000s earning rave reviews. The pinnacle of this must have been winning $100,000 and a world tour when they were named Best Live Act at the Global Battle Of The Bands. Their debut album, ‘White Collar Lies’ was released in the US in 2010, but is only this month getting a European release.
The album kicks off with the brilliant Love is Dead. It’s a song that has been getting a lot of airtime on national radio and is set to feature on the soundtrack to the upcoming Saw3D movie.
After The Easy Way (D.B Cooper) – a song that brings me back to the days of old-school pirate Phantom FM – comes Cocaine Chest Pains: another recognisable song for Irish fans. It was also quite a big success across the pond, reaching number 25 in the American active rock charts as well as being top ten in Canada’s active rock chart for 10 weeks.
The album mellows out in the middle with title-track White Collar Lies – a political rant bemoaning those in power only caring about money (“All the lives you bought and sold, you left love out in the cold/ All the times you didn’t try, all the people you let die”) – and Running Scared giving front man Daniel Jordan an opportunity to put his impressive vocals to the fore.
Sub Human is another song which might be what you’d expect from Kopek. With a looping acoustic guitar riff and the sound of what I believe is a didgeridoo in the background, it has a haunting, folk sound to it. There is no doubt Kopek are a band of many dimensions. They are not just a heavy rock band, they have the ability to do so much more. And while that heavy rock sound returns with Bring it on Home, the album takes a pop turn for the last three songs. These songs are by no means bad, but compared to the tracks previously mentioned they are poor relations.
Kopek’s debut album (it still feels weird saying that after all this time) is well worth a listen, particularly for the hard hitting rock songs. However the mix of a number of different sounds, while impressive, don’t fit together that well for me and leaves me skipping a few songs rather than listening to the album as a whole.