Copeland - In Motion

While I can’t go as far to describe Copeland’s newest release as perfect, I can say its pretty damn close.

To reach perfection means one must find themselves in the state of being without a flaw or deficiency. While I can’t go as far to describe Copeland’s newest release as perfect, I can say its pretty damn close. Believe me, there is a dear part of me that wants to label this album as perfection, but there is always slight room for improvement on some level but Copeland makes that slightness so hard to find. It’s as close as you can get without feeling like you being overdramatic, stagy or even cliché.

Copeland has just released one of the best pop rock albums of our time. An album that for once lives up to all the media hype and possibly exceeds it. With the band really coming off as shy and true to their values and religious beliefs, it sadly holds them back a bit that they don’t try to really fit into the “scene” they are lumped into. The band has the atypical skill and knack to pen songs centered on love and even be so obviously sentimental and straightforward about it without the music becoming trivial or characterless. It’s something that most bands in the pop-infused rock genre never ever come close to realizing. It just doesn’t happen.

With the breathtaking vocals of Aaron Marsh and sweet, pleasant instrumentation, In Motion delivers songs that you can slow dance to, jump around a little bit to and even make love to. It cannot be stressed enough how much beauty each song on this album holds within. From the vocals to the musical song structures Copeland just know how to please.

This album features a lot of guitar work where the tones and tendencies adjust throughout the songs. This forces each song to sound modestly different in texture and quality but yet still evenly flows together when all is said and done. This is another aspect of piecing an album together that Copeland has simply mastered and they almost make it seem easy and effortless. From the opening up-beat track, “No One Really Wins” the lyrics on In Motion are very invigorating yet simplistic; “Welcome love / I have made a place for you here / I know every word they say / I know how they want to make you change / Change if you want, but don’t you go and change for me / I will love you as you are/ I didn’t mean to make you want to leave / It’s a fight between my heart and mind, no one really wins this time.” You can see how straightforward and love-laced these lyrics are but when sung by Marsh’s angel-like voice, it all just fits together like the sun setting over water.

I feel as if no matter what words I use, I’m not doing Copeland any justice. Their music is so moving- and it’s been quite a long time since a band made me feel this way and I think I’m just going to enjoy it while I can because I’m not sure when it’ll happen again.

(The Militia Group)