The Cops
Drop It In Their Laps
Inertia



CD reviews normally contain a potted history of the band including any recent incidents of note - there's a certain formula to it and I'm a bit sick of it. So really I'll just tell you what I thought of The Cops new second album and let you make up your mind.

So this is a record that wants to be liked. It's not easy to write pop rock songs with strings and on The Message it succeeds - who could not be slightly amused at the lyric, 'You're the reason I like to shave my legs' - delivered with such aplomb? However, just about all of the thirteen tracks bar three sound similar - same beat, same keyboard line and the same swaggering vocal.

Sure, the effort's there and the earnestness is in the right place but I just got bored.

The clear highlights are The Message, the catchy, sing-a-long Call Me Anytime with its spot on chorus and Cop Pop, a track so self complete no chorus lyrics were written, just a plain 'Doo doo doo da' in its place.

New members Jarrod Murphy (guitar/vocals) and Nicholai Danko (drums) add their own capabilities to the new sound, that being more taut guitar riffs and so called 'whip-crack funky tight-ass grooves'. Perhaps I just miss the old Cops - the raw energy and minimalist crunch, the grunge and grime of Dirty Little Rebel and The Shake. However professed fans of the band will enjoy some musical expansion and new direction so they might lap this all up.

To risk sounding like a killjoy this isn't exactly a brilliant record. But as long as local press continue to talk up the Cops as Australia's rock 'n' roll saviours, they are set to do pretty damn fine anyway.

Lauren Boxhall