The Brooklyn duo Little Jackie essentially invites listeners to psychoanalyze frontwoman Imani Coppola, who on "Made for TV" presents herself as a strong, intelligent, plainspoken, lustful woman who has trouble landing and hanging on to relationships.
She sums up herself on the track "Independently Mine" with, "I'm not self-absorbed, I'm self-assured/I say what I mean, and I mean what I say."
But apparently one quality she can't brag about is her ability to understand what many men don't want — which is to say, an aggressive woman who pats herself on the back for telling it like it is.
How much of this is the real Coppola and how much is a stage character is debatable, but she's undeniably hilarious — so funny, in fact, that "Made for TV" could be a comedy album. On the track "31 Flavors," for example, she confesses to having "a problem with monogamy" and offers, "When I'm with one man, I kind of feel like I'm dying/So consider my infidelity self-defense." And on "The Pact," Coppola sings about being "terminally single," and adds, "Holy, holy matrimony/You know that it's all baloney/Stick a ring on my middle finger/And call it macaroni."
Lyrical marvel that "Made for TV" sometimes is, this is also a strikingly soulful album, beautifully constructed by producer/programmer Adam Palin in the bold retro style of the peak Motown/girl-group era, employing delicious vocal harmonies, shimmying grooves and walls of sound.
Coppola perfectly bridges edgy 2011 candor to the dreamy pop romance of the 1960s. Her warm vibrato is universally uplifting, even when she's whining about the way men act or crudely working through a lust attack.
Sure, Coppola has the power to sing simple starry-eyed refrains and embed them in the brains of her audiences. Yet what a waste that would be to deprive us of lines like this from "Fairy Tale Ending": "Why can't you be more like Johnny Depp, put a little pep in my step/What the heck, at this point I'll settle for Shrek."
Rating: 4 stars (out of five)
© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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