City of No Reply

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City of No Reply
Cityofnoreplycoffman.jpg
Studio album by
Amber Coffman
ReleasedJune 2, 2017
Recorded2015
StudioIvo Shandor (Los Angeles, California)
Genre R&B, [1] indie pop
Length45:55
Label Columbia
Producer David Longstreth
Singles from City of No Reply
  1. "All to Myself"
    Released: October 16, 2016
  2. "No Coffee"
    Released: March 31, 2017
  3. "Nobody Knows"
    Released: May 19, 2017

City of No Reply is the first solo album from singer-songwriter Amber Coffman, the former guitarist and vocalist for the indie rock band Dirty Projectors. The album was released on June 2, 2017.

Amber Coffman American musician

Amber Dawn Coffman is an American musician, singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles, California formerly based in Brooklyn, New York. A former member of Sleeping People, Coffman is best known as a former guitarist and vocalist for the indie rock band Dirty Projectors. She released her debut solo album, City of No Reply, on June 2, 2017.

Dirty Projectors American rock group

Dirty Projectors is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York City, New York, formed in 2002. The band currently consists of primary recording artist and core member David Longstreth, alongside longtime bass guitarist Nat Baldwin, Mike Daniel Johnson (drums), Maia Friedman, Felicia Douglass and Kristin Slipp.

Contents

Recording

Coffman began writing the album in 2011. [2] After moving to Los Angeles in 2013 and working with other producers, [1] she ultimately recorded City of No Reply in 2015 at the Los Angeles studio of her Dirty Projectors bandmate David Longstreth. [3] Longstreth and Coffman had previously dated, ending their six-year romantic relationship in 2012, [1] but Coffman selected Longstreth to produce her album after they resumed a platonic friendship [1] and began working on music together again in 2014. [4]

David Longstreth American musician

David Longstreth is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead singer and guitarist for the band Dirty Projectors.

Musical style and subject matter

In The Guardian , Tim Jonze described the album as "sunny, R&B-influenced album abundant with fluttering melodies," saying "the influence of Coffman’s former band is detectable, adding offbeat appeal to balance out her more accessible tendencies. The result is intriguing – an album about going it alone, that hasn’t entirely shaken its past." [5] At The A.V. Club , Erik Adams also notes echoes of Dirty Projectors style, but says, "More frequently, the compositions give off a sense of untethered exploration." [6] At NPR, Stephen Thompson described the album as "a love letter to the act of going solo, in life as in music," the songs "road maps to finding contentment and adventure as fearlessly as possible, even if it means coming to terms with solitude." [7]

<i>The Guardian</i> British national daily newspaper

The Guardian is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian, and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, the Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of the Guardian free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for The Guardian the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders.

Tim Jonze is a British music journalist for NME, Vice, Dazed and Confused and The Guardian.

<i>The A.V. Club</i> Online newspaper and entertainment website

The A.V. Club is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop culture media. The A.V. Club was created in 1993 as a supplement to The Onion. In the early years after that was established on the Internet in 1996, the supplement had minimal presence on the website.

Writing about single "No Coffee", Robin Hilton of NPR described the song "a relatively buoyant pop rumination on anxieties over lost love." [8]

Release

Coffman released the album on June 2, 2017, though noted the release date had been delayed from 2016. [1] Prior to the album's release, she released three singles: "All to Myself", released with a music video on October 16, 2016; [9] "No Coffee" on March 31, 2017 [8] and a music video directed by Zia Anger on May 1, 2017; [10] and "Nobody Knows" on May 19, 2017. [11]

Reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 78 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews" based on eight reviews. In The Guardian , Jonze gave the album four of five stars. New York Magazine named single "All to Myself" one of the "Best New Songs of the Week" [12] and at Pitchfork , Marc Hogan reviewed the track as "a sumptuously melodic singalong for solitary souls everywhere...On a chorus as warm and life-affirming as an afternoon in the sun, Coffman sings of an inner voice, and demonstrates how to release it." [13] In Spin, Anna Gaca said, "The first two songs ("All to Myself" and "No Coffee") are so pleasant and fun they feel like little miracles," though found songs on the album's B-side "less instantly memorable...The brighter moments of the second half can be interesting, but never as achingly perfect as that opening stretch." [14] In Stereogum , James Rettig described "Nobody Knows" as "a starry and shuffling number that shows off Coffman’s impeccably controlled range and ends in a surprisingly clanky breakdown." [11]

<i>New York</i> (magazine) American magazine on life, culture, politics, and style, focusing on New York City

New York is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite, and established itself as a cradle of New Journalism. Over time, it became more national in scope, publishing many noteworthy articles on American culture by writers such as Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Nora Ephron, John Heilemann, Frank Rich, and Rebecca Traister.

<i>Pitchfork</i> (website) online music magazine

Pitchfork is an American online magazine launched in 1995 by Ryan Schreiber, based in Chicago, Illinois, and owned by Condé Nast. Being developed during Schreiber's tenure in a record store at the time, the magazine developed a reputation for its extensive focus on independent music, but has since expanded to a variety of coverage on both indie and popular music.

Marc Hogan is an American journalist. He currently works as a senior staff writer at Pitchfork.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Amber Coffman and David Longstreth except where noted.

No.TitleLength
1."All to Myself"5:39
2."No Coffee" (Amber Coffman, Nicholas Krgovich, David Longstreth)4:06
3."Dark Night"3:43
4."City of No Reply"3:51
5."Miss You" (Amber Coffman, Nicholas Krgovich, David Longstreth)4:39
6."Do You Believe" (Amber Coffman, Nicholas Krgovich, David Longstreth)3:43
7."If You Want My Heart"3:41
8."Nobody Knows"3:47
9."Under the Sun"3:23
10."Brand New" (Amber Coffman, Nicholas Krgovich, David Longstreth)5:03
11."Kindness"4:15
Total length:45:55

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Sleeping People is an instrumental rock band from San Diego, California that formed in early 2002. They first started playing live at the end of that year as a trio consisting of Joileah Concepcion (guitar), Kasey Boekholt (guitar) and Brandon Relf (drums), with bassist Kenseth Thibideau joining the group in 2003. In 2005, the band released their self-titled debut album through Temporary Residence records. Around that same time, guitarist Concepcion left the band due to relocation, and her friend Amber Coffman replaced her on guitar. With Coffman, the band wrote and recorded three tracks that appeared on their second album, Growing. In early 2007, Concepcion returned to her former position while Coffman departed to join the Dirty Projectors, and the original lineup resumed. The style of instrumental rock they play is sometimes referred to as math rock, which is characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures, stop/start dynamics and angular, dissonant riffs.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Snapes, Laura (2 June 2017). "Amber Coffman on life after Dirty Projectors: 'Being on my own was pretty heavy'". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  2. ↑ Anderson, Stacey (May 1, 2017). "Amber Coffman on Why Her Solo Debut Is More Than a Breakup Album". Pitchfork. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  3. ↑ Cea, Max. ""City of No Reply": Can Amber Coffman escape the Dirty Projectors?". Salon. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  4. ↑ Blistein, Jon (March 28, 2017). "Amber Coffman Talks Split From Dirty Projectors, Dave Longstreth". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  5. ↑ Jonze, Tim (1 June 2017). "Amber Coffman: City of No Reply review – sunnily melodic solo statement". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  6. ↑ Adams, Erik (2 June 2017). "Amber Coffman, Gucci Mane, and more in this week's music reviews". The A.V. Club . Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  7. ↑ Thompson, Stephen (May 25, 2017). "First Listen: Amber Coffman, 'City Of No Reply'". NPR. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  8. 1 2 Hilton, Robin (March 31, 2017). "Amber Coffman Shares Buoyant New Pop Song From Upcoming Solo Debut". NPR. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  9. ↑ Breihan, Tom (6 October 2016). "Amber Coffman – "All To Myself" Video". Stereogum. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  10. ↑ Kim, Michelle (May 1, 2017). "Amber Coffman Details Solo Album City of No Reply, Shares New "No Coffee" Video: Watch". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  11. 1 2 Rettig, James (19 May 2017). "Amber Coffman – "Nobody Knows"". Stereogum. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  12. ↑ Lockett, Dee (October 12, 2016). "6 Best New Songs of the Week". Vulture. New York Magazine. Retrieved 2017-06-04.
  13. ↑ Hogan, Marc (October 6, 2016). "Amber Coffman "All to Myself"". Pitchfork. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  14. ↑ Gaca, Anna (2017-06-06). "Review: Amber Coffman, 'City of No Reply'". Spin. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
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