Officer Jenny
The Gods Must Be Giddy, a Gaggle of Unexceptional Songs Written for Unexceptional People
Self-Released
Street: 05.31
Officer Jenny = Sufjan Stevens + The Shins
 
Provo’s Stephen Cope, who performs under the Pokémon-inspired moniker, Officer Jenny, offers up an understated, personal and, at times, campy album in his debut. Gods starts off with the bouncy Beatles-esque tune “Sandcastle Dove,” which leads one to believe that this album is going to have a good amount of energy which, except for two other songs, is inaccurate. Even the silly tune “My Robot Boots,” which talks about “fancy fish at a funeral” dressed in coats and caps, never rises above a steady drone. Cope, however, has crafted a poignantly beautiful album overall, and songs like closer “Caroline, Dress in Blue” take on the heavy subject of death, ending with the lines “We’re taught to cry in the end/All dressed in black, eyes all red/But Caroline, dress in blue/So Caroline, I’ll know it’s you,” remind us how powerful the singer/songwriter genre can be. –Blake Leszczynski