Lily Sparks “Cooper Cobra”
Some guys go for petite flowers when it comes to finding girls to love. But others dig the tough chicks, and live for the challenge of handling handfuls. And for the latter variety, in the overall companion search realm, there is Lily Sparks. This band opens its new five-song EP with “Stars,” which announces: “Stars, guitars, muscle cars make me happy.” In other words, girly dresses and jewelry are not effective paths to their strong, gnarly hearts.
This group is lead by Nimh who, while raised in Ireland, sounds a lot like American rocker, Ann Wilson, of Heart. Although she may not have the same Led Zeppelin fixation as does that Seattle-based classic rock band, Nimh can belt it out pretty darn well. Lily Sparks is from New York City, which is already a tough enough starting point for bands of guys. But this is a trio of girls, which certainly needs every ounce of toughness it can muster just to survive.
The disc’s opener, “Stars,” is a sort of call to arms. It’s the type of song that declares just exactly who is doing the talking around here – these tough ones. “Moonlight on the GTO/And I turn the radio on,” it begins, setting the scene. “I’m living it up until my dying days,” the group says later, in a ‘live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse,’ manner. However, even tough exteriors sometimes have soft, white underbellies. But when Lily Sparks gets quiet and acoustic – as happens during “The Girls” — the track turns out to be a love song to New York City, rather than just some guy. It ends with Nimh gently cooing this famous big city’s name.
There are, however, a few relationship songs – tunes about relationships to other people, rather than odes to autos, celebrities, metropolises and instruments – of course. With “Let Go,” Nimh cries for her man to let down his guard just a little bit more, so the two can open up to each other a whole lot better. And with “Walk Away,” a chugging rocker, she sighs about the aftermath of a relationship’s recent demise.
The song that brings the band Heart most to mind is titled “Where Are We Today”. And while it’s slightly vague, lyrically speaking, it appears to contain politically motivated words. On it, Nimh asks a few biting, pointed questions. “Where are we today/Do you feel safe or still scared to speak your mind?” Over an insistent acoustic guitar groove, it seems to be about the affect of the 9/11 terrorist attack. And that makes sense because nobody who lives in New York City will ever be the same after what happened on that fateful day. It’s a shame that an event, that once so unified us, has become little more than political fodder to some. I wish the band could have been a little clearer in how they worded this particular one because that would have made it even more powerful than it already is.
In a music scene where shock-poppers, like Lady Gaga, and girl rockers, like Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, attract so much (too much?) public attention, it’s refreshing to once again hear an honest-to-goodness hard rocking girl band. Cooper Cobra will bring back memories of Heart, of course, as well as The Bangles during some of their more aggressive moments. Tracks such as “Stars” are good fun, but more thoughtful recordings, namely “Where Are We Today” and “The Girls”, reveal even more promise for this act, as they dig so much deeper. These women can definitely play and sing as well, so their future is bright.
The world better let the ever-tough Lily Sparks succeed, or else somebody might get hurt.
Reviewed By Dan MacIntosh
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