''Cope'' is the fourth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

from

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

-based

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Manchester Orchestra Manchester Orchestra is an American indie rock band from Atlanta formed in 2004. The group is composed of rhythm guitarist-singer-songwriter Andy Hull, lead guitarist Robert McDowell, bassist Andy Prince and drummer Tim Very. Former drummer Jer ...

. It was released on April 1, 2014 through

Loma Vista Recordings Loma Vista Recordings is a record label founded by Tom Whalley, former chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Records and Executive of A&R at Interscope Records. The label was initially a joint venture with Republic Records and is based in Beverly Hill ...

and the band's own

independent label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

Favorite Gentlemen Manchester Orchestra is an American indie rock band from Atlanta formed in 2004. The group is composed of rhythm guitarist-singer-songwriter Andy Hull, lead guitarist Robert McDowell, bassist Andy Prince and drummer Tim Very. Former drummer Jer ...

. The album was self-produced alongside their long-time collaborating partner

Dan Hannon Dan Hannon is an American record producer, audio engineer, mixer, songwriter, and musician. He has produced, co-produced, co-written, and performed on albums that have sold over 4.5 million copies, that have been streamed over one billion time ...

, and mixed by John Agnello at Fluxivity Studios in Brooklyn. The album's first single, "Top Notch", was released on January 20, 2014. The album's second single, "Every Stone", was released on February 25, 2014.

Recording

In the press release announcing the album's official title and release date, the band provided some further details about the album. It was revealed that ''Cope'' was recorded entirely in the band's recently completed home studio, and the album was described as an "unrelenting and unapologetically heavy 38 minutes of rock." Lead singer and songwriter

Andy Hull John Andrew Hull (born November 7, 1986) is an American singer, musician and songwriter. He serves as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and primary songwriter of the indie rock band Manchester Orchestra. He also has a side project, Right Away ...

went on to explain the tone of the album: "We wanted to make the kind of album that's missing at this time in rock: something that's just brutal and pounding you over the head every track ..Whereas ''

Simple Math ''Simple Math'' is the third studio album from Atlanta-based indie rock band Manchester Orchestra. It was released on May 10, 2011 through independent label Favorite Gentlemen Recordings, itself distributed by Sony Music Entertainment. The album w ...

'' was a different palate with each song, a different color, I wanted this to be black and red the whole time."

Critical reception

''Cope'' mainly received positive feedback from critics upon release. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 70, based on 18 reviews, indicating 'generally positive reviews'. In a review for ''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

'', Matt Collar claimed that, "Manchester Orchestra's fourth studio effort, 2014's Cope, is a heavy, often dark, yet incredibly melodic album that finds the Atlanta outfit delving deep into its

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has been ...

roots." At ''

Alternative Press Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political ri ...

'', Brian Shultz rated the album four stars out of five, saying that the band are "appeared to be making the artist natural self-reaction statement when the promised their fourth full-length ..would be 'brutal', 'pounding' and 'unapologetically heavy' rock record in contrast to the emotional and musical bell curve" of its predecessor, which this even "though appearing far more straightforward to the average listener, certainly delivers just that: it's the band's signature sound, only beefed up with massive choruses, heavy plowing and pleasing anguish". In addition, Shultz closes with "And though it unfortunately eschews the dynamic emotive crests and space of past efforts in favor of MO's intensely urgent intent, the results make it a completely worthy addition to an alt-rock catalog." Miles Raymer of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' stated that the album "combined

melodicism with

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

heft." Rhian Daly of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' said the album veers from the "prettier, quieter moments" of ''

'' and "focuses instead on turbo-charged

power-pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and ch ...

Track listing

The album's track listing was announced on January 21, 2014, through the band's mailing list:

References

{{Authority control 2014 albums Manchester Orchestra albums Loma Vista Recordings albums Albums produced by Dan Hannon