Cope

Citizen Cope and a granola bagel on a spring Sunday morning. Praise the Lord.

Sometimes I wish I felt the pull to go back to church, but so far, it works for me to stay home and listen to music and get myself in the right headspace to finish out the weekend and get ready for another work week.

Ever since I saw Cope perform last year, I've been a fan, and have yet to tire of listening to his records or seeing his band live. What RCA calls his "urban sensibility" in press releases is in no way that easy to sum up. They also call him a "sonic auteur", which, if a bit over the top, sent me to the RCA website to see if they were hiring writers. Don't get me wrong - I love that they're promoting him so well, because he's touring like crazy and that means more people are hearing good music. And it's not just him. Although he's clearly in charge of the operation - that press release should just say "CHARISMA" in bold at the top - his band is one of the best I've ever heard live, and I've been going to shows and calling it like I hear it for more than 20 years.

The new album is called the Clarence Greenwood Recordings, and I love it, but I'm still partial to his first, self-titled release, Citizen Cope. The single from that record, "Contact", used to play on the in-store play when I worked at Borders, and I didn't appreciate it then - to tell the truth, we were like, "Who is this guy and will someone please give him some contact?" - but heard in context it's all good.