Album: Sorry to Bother You
Label: Anti-
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/c/coup.jpg
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The Coup
Sorry to Bother You
A previous album was called Party Music, but this takes parties to the next level, with the funk grooves and shout-along anthems of the year, while amping up the revolution talk for our Occupy era. They’re cutting through the lies they were taught at school, invading boardrooms, plotting takeovers, exposing the hypocrisy of the war on drugs (in a kazoo-punk jam, no less) and marching in the streets, then knocking back a few Long Island iced teas to celebrate. Above and beyond all the rebellious noise, Boots Riley has honed the poetry in his songs, bringing the detailed imagistic writing of a Leonard Cohen or Joni Mitchell to hip-hop. Handclaps, twilight-time string arrangements, revenge fantasies, art theory (they choose David Siqueiros over Andy Warhol) and a good old-fashioned posse cut unite under the fabric of grassroots, populist, visionary music. — Dave Heaton