Stream: Cody Crump, ‘Hola’ (full EP)

Kevin Bronson on March 20th, 2017

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Cody Crump’s weirdly addictive new EP starts with the title track, “Hola,” and bids farewell with “Au Revoir,” winding up a five-song relationship arc from both inner and outer space. Crump’s vignettes, which feature guests Danielle “Danz” Johnson of Computer Magic and French-American actress Alexandra Lemosle, are told in multiple languages with beguiling naiveté over synths and melodies so warm you’d think they were made of a crush itself. This affair’s dialogues are simple, sincere, even dorky. But the Colorado-bred, L.A.-based artist’s electronic manipulation of the vocals — mere gimmickry in so much pop and hip-hop — here serves as sly commentary on what’s being said. Is “I Think I Love You” a spontaneous, heartfelt revelation, or is it a recitation when Crump gives the line a baby-robot voice? Is “Friendzone” (and wanting “to get it in the end zone”) the sound of the Postal Service finally getting laid? Is “French Kiss” Euro-sensual or just the sound of computers swapping spit? “Hola,” released last week via Binasaur Records and also featuring Jason Ganberg on drums, has all the layers of a foreign film with an uneasy sense of resolution. The cinema of pop eclecticism.

||| Stream: “Hola” (full EP)