[review 2007: odds and ends]

Sometimes you can write entire screeds about an album. And sometimes you can barely write a sentence. For whatever reason, here’s some of the albums this year that had me fresh out of new perspectives.

C.O.C.O. - Play Drums + Bass. Olivia Ness and Chris Sutton record another set of minimalist indie funk standards that have you marvel at how much Ness has grown as a singer—and how little the band’s ambitions have grown in the same period. But maybe there’s just not that much you can do with a bass guitar and drums, and C.O.C.O. are already pushing the envelope as far as it will go. Or maybe they’re not evolving much because the new album is still groovetastic, even if it’s not that dissimilar from their last CD.