Hard to believe it’s been nearly a decade since Colour Revolt released their last album, The Cradle. And yet, despite all those intervening years, there are many of us still clamoring for the group’s ambitious songwriting, for their swooning guitars and soaring melodies. Frontman Jesse Coppenbarger, in particular, has been missed. Although the Mississippi rockers could deliver songs both tranquil and tempestuous, it was Coppenbarger’s evocative singing that tied everything together in a cordon of emotive knots.
So when Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra announced in 2019 that a new solo album was in the works, fans were understandably fired up. It wouldn’t be the first time Coppenbarger had stepped out on his own, of course. In 2009, he released Oxford Basement Collection, an enigmatic debut of experimental and folk-influenced songs released under the curious moniker El Obo. Although he would return to Colour Revolt shortly thereafter, the record revealed a more intimate and adventurous side to Coppenbarger’s songwriting.
Still, when a new record didn’t surface in 2019, it seemed like perhaps the moment had passed. Then, just a week ago, we finally got wind of “Sayonara.” As a re-introduction to El Obo, it is dark and dramatic, a moody piece of orchestral folk-rock that manages to inject a sense of wonder and enchantment into its brooding backdrop. That was followed soon after by “Bedroom Window,” a far punchier and pop-laden track that taps into Coppenbarger’s anxiety over the boundaries (or lack thereof) between artist and art.
“‘Bedroom Window’ is about my personal experience with being an artist and needing to explain my work,” Coppenbarger says. “Wanting to express myself to others while also maintaining my privacy and the universality of art and allowing others to interpret ‘meaning’ and feelings about songs on their own.”
Listen below.
With two new songs unveiled out of the blue, it only begs the question if a new album is on the way. And today we’re happy to confirm that, indeed, a full length El Obo LP is complete and ready for the light of day. Recorded over five years in two different homes, the ten-track Reach Into the Dark & Pull it Closer will be released by Favorite Gentlemen on June 5 and will feature Cole Furlow and Patrick “Paddy” Ryan (Colour Revolt) on drums. You can check out the cover art and tracklist below.
Reach Into the Dark & Pull it Closer Tracklist
01. Genocide of Joy
02. Bedroom Window
03. Crybaby
04. Grit and Grin
05. You’re Gone
06. General King
07. Sayonara
08. Parting Yard
09. Normandy Sands
10. Looking Through the Gates
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