Heartache City

Heartache City is the sixth studio album by American musical group CocoRosie. It was released by CocoRosie's own record label, Lost Girl Records, on September 18, 2015.[1] The album is described by music webzine The Line of Best Fit as a freak folk album in which "the tracks all share a strong backbone of hip hop and afro-beat".[2]

Heartache City
Studio album by CocoRosie
Released	September 18, 2015 (2015-09-18)
Genre	Freak folk
Length	44:32
Label	Lost Girl Records
Producer	CocoRosie
CocoRosie chronology
Tales of a GrassWidow (2013) Heartache City (2015) Put the Shine On (2020)
Alternative cover
Vinyl edition cover

Background

Like many of our past records, we wrote and gathered much of the material at our farm studio in the south of France with minimal equipment, vintage toys and antique instruments. Going back to a "4-track" style approach, we limited ourselves to essential, acoustic accompaniment, played by us, and select percussion, toys from our old suit cases dating back to the La Maison days.

— CocoRosie[3]

Promotion and release

On June 11, 2015, CocoRosie shared a behind-the-scenes video of the group in the studio and announced that a new album would be released that Fall.[4] The video featured snippets of the tracks "Hairnet Paradise" and "Big and Black", the latter being intended for the album. The album was preceded by the release of three live recordings of album tracks: "Heartache City" on July 9, 2015;[5] "Un Beso" on July 22, 2015;[6] and "Lost Girls" on August 11, 2015.[7] The live tracks were recorded at Findspire Studio and released on SoundCloud. The album's title and release date were revealed along with the release of "Un Beso (Live)" on July 22, 2015.[8] On September 10, 2015, the track "Tim and Tina" premiered exclusively through Billboard.[9]

Heartache City was released digitally on September 18, 2015[10] and on CD on October 16, 2015. It is the first album to be released on CocoRosie's own label, Lost Girl Records.[11] The non-album track "Lilies of Innocence" which features guest vocals from frequent collaborator Anohni was available to download upon ordering the album on CD from CocoRosie's website. On January 29, 2016, the album was released on vinyl. The vinyl release has different album art and includes two bonus tracks: "Lilies of Innocence" and "Un Beso (Live)".

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	66/100[12]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[13]
The Independent	[14]
The Line of Best Fit	8/10[15]
PopMatters	[16]
The Skinny	[17]

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 66, based on 7 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[12]

Track listing

All tracks are written by CocoRosie.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Forget Me Not"	5:30
2.	"Un Beso"	4:18
3.	"Lost Girls"	5:20
4.	"Heartache City"	3:14
5.	"The Tower of Pisa"	3:20
6.	"Bed Bugs"	3:46
7.	"Tim and Tina"	4:14
8.	"Big and Black"	5:54
9.	"Lucky Clover"	5:24
10.	"No One Knows"	3:30
Total length:		44:32

Vinyl edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Length
11.	"Lilies of Innocence" (featuring Anohni)	4:23
12.	"Un Beso" (live)	5:04
Total length:		53:59

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.

• CocoRosie – performance, production
• Tez – human beatbox (4), production (4)
• Takuya Nakamura – keyboards (4, 8), trumpet (4, 8)
• Tavahn Ghazi – vocals (6)
• Nicolas Kalwill – engineering, mixing

Charts

Chart	Peak position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[18]	174
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[19]	167
French Albums (SNEP)[20]	193

References

1. "CocoRosie - Heartache City, album review". The Standard. November 13, 2015.
2. Appleyard, James (September 30, 2015). "CocoRosie wrap their arms around a glorious world of weird with Heartache City". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved September 28, 2017.
3. "COCOROSIE "HEARTACHE CITY (LIVE)"". self-titled. July 10, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
4. "CocoRosie behind the scenes "Hairnet Paradise" / "Big and Black"". YouTube. June 11, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
5. "heartache city (live)". SoundCloud. July 9, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
6. "Un Beso (live)". SoundCloud. July 22, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
7. "Lost Girls (Live)". SoundCloud. August 11, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
8. "CocoRosie Announce New Album Heartache City, Share "Un Beso (Live)"". Pitchfork. July 22, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
9. "CocoRosie Release New Track 'Tim and Tina': Exclusive Premiere". Billboard. September 10, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
10. ""Heartache City" by CocoRosie". iTunes. September 18, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
11. "Lost Girl Records – Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
12. "Heartache City by CocoRosie". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
13. Phares, Heather. "Heartache City - CocoRosie". AllMusic. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
14. Gill, Andy (November 13, 2015). "CocoRosie, Heartache City - album review". The Independent. Archived from the original on December 25, 2015. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
15. Appleyard, James (September 16, 2015). "CocoRosie wrap their arms around a glorious world of weird with Heartache City". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
16. Ragucos, Dustin (November 20, 2015). "CocoRosie: Heartache City". PopMatters. Archived from the original on October 28, 2016. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
17. Sully, George (November 2, 2015). "CocoRosie – Heartache City". The Skinny. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
18. "Ultratop.be – CocoRosie – Heartache City" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
19. "Ultratop.be – CocoRosie – Heartache City" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
20. "Lescharts.com – CocoRosie – Heartache City". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 9, 2020.

External links

• Heartache City at Discogs (list of releases)