After two releases with the NJ pop-emo outfit Tocar, singer/songwriter Jarrett Randazzo went his own way with his new band, Copperpot. Copperpot's debut LP Nothing Lasts Forever is essentially the product of the then 20-year-old Randazzo and Tocar drummer Casey Tuck, and is an attempt to fuse '90s power pop and "mainstream" emo into a single, palatable release. It more than achieves this; as the ten-track debut album displays, some of the songs here sound like lost classics and sport magnificent production, even if they're a particular style of pop music that the mainstream forgot. If there was any justice, the Fountains of Wayne-meets-Jimmy Eat World of Nothing Lasts Forever would be at the top of the charts and selling millions.
Luckily, justice was served in at least one respect -- Nothing Lasts Forever became one of the albums to benefit heavily from MP3 distribution on the Internet, and no less than four songs from the album were released as Internet "singles" and climbed very high on the MP3.com charts. It's a significant step both for Copperpot and for less commercial genres of music in general, as excellent bands that might've been otherwise overlooked are finally being heard. Some of the highlights include the new-wavey "Candy" (the album's first "single," released over the Internet months before the album's release), the pure pop of "Christine" and the title track, and the affected ballad "Break My Fall." Considering this is a debut and was basically the product of a lone New Jersey teenager, it's all quite impressive indeed.
© Jason Damas /TiVo