Copyrights, The - North Sentinel Island LP IAR 060
Named after North Sentinel Island — a small island famous for being one of the last civilizations to be mapped, where all contact is resisted and spears are launched at all who try to approach — this album is surprisingly one that urges you to listen.
Indeed, The Copyrights’ North Sentinel Island is an enjoyable collection of punk-inspired songs. With a polished but unspoiled production and lots of snappy tracks that reveal themselves to you over many listens, it certainly is never less than energetic. One of the hook-laden songs is “Expatriate Blues,” which opens with a declaration of “I’m not homesick, I’m just sick of home.” The theme of travel runs through the album, from the insular resistance to the world of the album’s title, to “Worn Out Passport” with the celebratory opening line, “I wanna die with a worn out passport/with a pair of stolen jeans” — you can hear the band’s wanderlust in the openness of their sound.
The snappy anthems are less frequent as the album continues, and the last few songs come in at around three and four minutes. “Well Fed and Warm” is by far the longest track on the album, and it shows a comparatively slower side to the band that is as effective as their short anthems. Talk of a planning “a deadbeat vacation” continues the idea of movement, and if travel is the key theme, the album ends it journey with the excellently titled “Hell Will be Party Time.”
The voice samples from news broadcasts scattered throughout the album add an extra dimension to this deeper-than-usual slice of power-punk, and for this I appreciated it even more.
(stolen from verbicide magazine)
Pressing Information
Test Pressing: none
First Pressing: 500 black vinyl, 100 red vinyl, 100 white vinyl, 100 blue vinyl, 100 yellow vinyl, 100 green vinyl
Second Pressing: 500 brown vinyl