From the first automated squiggles and hushed, spoken-word-ish lines of this self-titled record, one gets the distinct feeling that this is a story, a tale, a narrative journey during which lessons will be learned, paths will be crossed, and new beginnings will crack their eyes open and stretch out like the first hints of sun on the horizon. Dark Side Of The Cop, while threading this large ball of yarn together, make no secret of their love for electronics of every digital stripe, installing a bevy of astray sounds into their mainframe.
Which makes sense if you consider that this 13-track quest was originally meant to be an “alternate” — their words, not mine — soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop, a movie with one of the most memorable synthonies of all time at its core. Dark Side Of The Cop don’t go that far with their love of keys, and constant vocals keep their compositions rooted in the here and now. Notice the use of the word ‘constant’ in the previous sentence; it’s important because many of this album’s glimmering moments are besmirched by so-so singing that never goes away. Granted, they want to tell a story, but Dark Side could have let their instruments intimate the details of the story and fared much better. In fact, the instruments fairly tell the story anyway, sinking below the surface when things get mellow and flowing up and out when mood demands it. Then again, prose like “Life makes quick work of dreams” can’t be expressed in bloop-speak — what to do?
My solution: The better-than-average lyrics could just as easily have graced the liner notes and provided a written accompaniment to the fluorescent whirlpool of sounds that strikingly catch the ear like the neon-blue buildings of Miami at midnight. But there I go telling people how to run their lives again, damn me! This album has nothing to do with Miami anyway; the story centers around a policeman moving from Detroit to Los Angeles in search of childhood love, a Something About Mary for the West Coast set, if you will. Indeed, as many of these tracks speed past, you’ll be reminded of the vast expanse of America’s roadways and the solemn, comfortable feeling you get as you clock mile after mile, occasionally stopping for coffee and goat jerky.
Then again, I’m a born road tripper — I could hear any type of song and yearn for the open highway. Whether you allow yourself to be engulfed by Dark Side Of The Cop’s vision is up to yuuuu and yuuuu alone. While many of its moments feel bogged down at the expense of its storyline, Dark Side isn’t a fly-by-night project. It requires the dedication of the listener as much as it required the dedication of the artist to see completion. Are you willing to make the commitment? Your tolerance of irksome vocals may very well determine whether you take the trip...
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