Citizen Cope
Heroin and Helicopters, the first new album from Citizen Cope in seven years, doesn’t drop until March 1, but he’s already announced a headline tour that includes a March 30 date at Observatory North Park. The lead single, “Justice,” is streaming online, a sunny bit of psychedelic pop that kicks off like a late-60s Beatles track, all vintage synths and baroque horns. Things grow even more Beatlesque as he sings happily of how “I found this brand new light, something within me all my life.” All that’s missing is the “goo-goo-katchoos” as he slips into a melted mantra of how “Yeah, still my love will be received, better yet still my heart is in need of release.” The last few times the Washington DC singer-songwriter, now based in Los Angeles, played our city, it was either as a solo or duo act. This time, he’ll be accompanied by a full band in order to bring to life an album that he says deals with his “personal struggles with religion, political manipulation, hollowness in the entertainment world, and spiritual enlightenment.”