The easy comparison to draw with regard to Amy Cooper's music is that of Liz Phair. Rock chick with a guitar, simple but forceful songs and a take-no-crap attitude. That's Phair, right? Maybe, but it's not fair, because Cooper, while possessing much of what made Phair and the pretenders to her ballsy-chick throne in the early 1990s, has things in the plus and minus columns that make the comparison lazy at best, simply wrong at worst. Her new EP, mirrors, is a prime example.

As evidenced by the seven songs here, Cooper is a much more accomplished guitarist than Phair, and she has a better voice as well. Her songs are more conventional, and thus easier to grasp. At the same time, that conventionality means there is little to unlock here, so it remains to be seen if these will hold up to repeat listens. And while her lyrics aren't bad, they do traffic in the kind of generalities that Phair eschewed.

Taken on its own merits, mirrors is a brisk, catchy listen. Over the course of seven originals, Cooper sticks to a simple formula of guitar, bass and drums (she handles the guitar, Frank Lenz plays bass and drums). The songs take on a depth on the choruses where Cooper multi-tracks her own voice to good effect, elevating her solid hooks and giving the songs a thrust that keeps the listener engaged. When she does shift the dynamics, as on the slow burner "You Can't Have It All," she falls closer to the work of Aimee Mann, showing that she has more range than might be evident from the first few tracks.

The song drawing the most attention is "25," a minute-long solo tune that finds Cooper singing over her own guitar strums, "I thought everything would be finalized by the time I was 25." Most people probably felt that way at some point. That Cooper realizes it and seems to see it as an open door to a room full of topics to explore lyrically is a good sign. I'll be curious to hear what she's up to by the time her angst about turning 30 sets in.

Labels: music, TuesdayTuneup