An Horse: Stud Potential

An Horse, whose name humorously marries flippancy and pedantry, is a gentle anecdote to the mainstream rock music industry preoccupied with production and consumed with the idea of melodic perfection.

With Rearrange Beds, the Australian duo of Iron On’s Kate Cooper (guitar/vocals) and Intercooler’s Damon Cox (drums), has released a debut album that without being derivative, is still familiar. That is more basement than underground, more independent than indie and, through a somewhat unnerving simplicity, loveable quirkiness and left-wing youthfulness, is more unique than original.

It is exactly these subtle differences that allow An Horse to take what is essentially formulaic indie rock with spiky guitars and yo-yo vocals into a new direction. A new direction where the music, it seems, is not created with a specific modus operandi. No thoughtful contemplation into the end result. No horses for course. Indeed, the music has a more random quality. An eclectic race between galloping melodies and lazy, trotting vocals.

Cooper writes songs that are obvious in their youthfulness. Simple in their innocence, yet addictive in their forthrightness. She manages to lament on awkward, broken love with a strange positivity. Her insouciance constantly wrestles her ambivalence. Her disappointment at ongoing miscommunication is effectively communicated through her confusions of relevance.

This ragged, discordant, mishmash of ideals and desires, expressed with zany passion, has been the domain of female singer/songwriters such as Kimya Dawson, Fiona Apple and Ani DiFranco.

Cooper’s biggest problem, however, and one that makes comparing her to the above artists all the more relevant, is that she lacks the single-minded dedication found in these artists. Dawson is dedicated to her quirkiness, Apple to her intellectuality and DiFranco to her bohemian ideals and laconic voice. Cooper, on the other hand, never fully follows any specific path, which, after time, dilutes her uniqueness and inhibits the music.

So, while the overall effect of the album is a joyous and crazy freedom, we are often left somewhat dissatisfied by An Horse’s lack of a definitive article, or at least its too dispersed interpretation of what a definitive article is.

Cooper does, however, periodically finds conviction and when she does, Rearrange Beds is all we want it to be and everything her untrained, emotion-inspiring voice promises. Two striking examples of this stand out. The first with the album’s opener, Camp Out and the other in Listen, the album’s slow, melancholy realisation that there are times when no matter what, disappointment follows us.

“I’m listening carefully,
To where exactly you might be,
Cause I’ve had enough waiting.
I’ve had enough waiting for you.
I’m thinking,
I’m thinking,
Of growing old with someone,
As beautiful as you.
Just ask me to,
Just ask me to.”

The object of Cooper’s desire, the song reveals, never asks her to.

In Camp Out, however, Cooper shows that this disappointment usually comes with the knowledge that “it’s OK to fall down, it’s OK to crumble” and this mixture results in inconclusiveness. Camp Out opens the album spectacularly with Cooper declaring:
“This is a song for the one that I love
I haven’t met them yet
But I’m quietly confident.
Although what if like you said
All I’m looking for,
It doesn’t exist?
Oh I have to believe it does.”

Later in the song, she tempers her quandary with the wonderfully addictive and referential line: “Like that good Hole album, I can live through this, I can live through this”.

Having found initial success with its song Postcards being used in a TV ad for the Mercedes-Benz CLC-Class, An Horse has shown that, in periodic bursts, its blend of quirk and simplicity can not only revitalise indie, but also poke its head into the mainstream.
Rearrange Beds will not win any races. The band, however, will surely run again and when it does, it may jut be worthwhile betting on.

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