Imani Coppola
Issue #34
The Black and White Album (Ipecac Recordings)
By Sonia Pereira Murphy
Published: December 1st, 2007 | 4:04pm
If your heart just leapt at the heady thought of Imani Coppola circa her ’97 debut Chupacabra, you’d better still yourself pronto. Instead of cute tunes reminiscent of “I’m a Tree,” The Black and White Album emanates with a compendium of raging tracks.
“Black and White Jingle #1” sets the album’s tone with its sour and biting vibe, if not its minimal sound. A rap-infused “30th Birthday” riffs on how much getting older sucks, while the guttural “Keys 2 Your Ass” veers into Gravy Train!!! territory with some pretty explicit — though not exactly clever — sexual images. But it’s “Dirty Pictures,” a raunchy beat-driven number, that wins the “Most Disturbing Lyrics” title with its doses of “you just made a fat girl cry,” “people and pigs are still procreating,” and “make that fat girl squeal.” A half-a-dozen listens and I still can’t tell whether Coppola’s being ironic or not, but in any case, let’s just say I won’t be playing that track any time soon.
While the album in no way compares to the refreshing sprightliness of her first, a few of its songs twinkle amid the refuse like hidden gems. “Woke Up White” hilariously depicts the Coppola’s frustrations regarding race via a hefty punk anthem, and “Raindrops From the Sun (Hey, Hey, Hey)” is about as cool as a Nellie McKay–Dusty Springfield mash-up.
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