Jacob Cooper, the solo man of Bark Bark Bark, is quite an ambitious fellow. Though, I regret to say that his ambitions don't take him that far. Bark Bark Bark is an electronic effort fused together by "synthesizers and keyboards, borrowed musical equipment, and sampled cuts and clicks." Look a little confusing? Well it is. Haunts is Cooper's debut album, unfortunately it plays more like a bad experiment. The album as a whole only carries a handful of songs that keep you awake. The rest leave you a little sleepy eyed. Haunts feels like an amateur composer trying to copy LCD Soundsystem album. Interestingly enough however, Cooper has successful played with quite a line up of respectable bands, such as Of Montreal, RATATAT, Architecture In Helsinki, and Polysics. But how? The album is so dull and boring! His musicianship must be startling, or maybe even impressive.
Haunts begins with what seems to be the weakest track on the album. Articulated that way? Hope not. The song, "Brand New Shoes," just sounds like a whole bunch of gibbering instruments and a dull voice. Not much passion. Then it continues to the title track, "Haunts." Still a little bland, however a somewhat catchy line "Love is unconditional, except for one condition" - and some sarcastic notations along the way. Next song, too experimental, boring. Moving on to the song "One Thing Stands." An ambient approach that also leads to failure. The biggest problem is boredom. The album has nothing engaging. On to track five and we have somewhat of a winner. However, all that glitters is not gold. One of Cooper's strengths is sampling, and you can feel it starting to promote itself in this song. It's one of the best songs on the album, sure, but that doesn't say much. Pass through two more strenuous songs and you get to "GTFO," which is once again exhibiting Cooper's strengths and it's even catchy! From here on the album continues to get better from, "I Love You But I Don't, How To Save A Whale," and "Dead Ghost." And the crowd is screaming yes Cooper! You can do this, you're just about there. And then the final track leaves you disappointed like bad one-night-stand.
However, Bark Bark Bark has potential to become a great addition to our musical world. It's unfortunate that this album was his debut. He should have taken his strongest songs - "Tattoo's," "GTFO," "I Love You But I Don't, How To Save A Whale," "Dead Ghost," and maybe "Haunts" - slapped them together and release an EP or maybe a demo. However, this is a poor skid mark for Cooper. While listing to the album you realize quite a few things. For one, Cooper is not a bad musician; he is just an awful composer. He succeeds in sampling and should continue. The album is just so slapped together and rough. It feels more like an experiment. He's trying to hard to find his sound, the problem with that of course, is that he released it and put his name on it. Try again Cooper, something good will happen.
