Wil Cope & the Dope
Denial River
Reviewed by Doug Freeman, Fri., June 28, 2019
"If it ain't tragedy, how can it be true?" asks Wil Cope in opening his sophomore LP with "Fallin' Out of Love." Like 2011's Sunset Craves, these are low-down, gutter-tumbled ballads hinging on the singer's nasal drawl, but there's an ineffable charm and undeniably sharp songwriting buried in the raw, no-fi production. The desert-dusted psych of "End of the Bed (End of the World)" and last call slur "Past the Night" sink into Cope's spectrum of restlessness and regret.
