The Ruggedly Electric Appeal of Cooper Hill’s Debut Alt-Pop LP, They Control the Volume –

If it has been a while since you last heard a release sticky-sweet enough to give you goosebumps, jump on the hype amassing around Cooper Hill and his debut album, They Control the Volume. Kicking off with a folksy indie pop rap firestorm of emotion, PLAY, which screams with the same crossover appeal of Mumford & Sons through its ruggedly electric, melodically magnetic acoustic guitar chords and arresting vocal inflexions, the LP instantly pulls you in, hook, line and sinker. The Nashville-based producer evidently bypassed cheap production tricks in favour of a candied charisma and has locked fans into a total sonic sugar rush.

Don’t let the debut status of the LP fool you. Hill’s songwriting chops have been honed to the nth degree during his tenure as a hitmaker for others, including his work on gold-certified records. With a voice as sweet as honey, carrying a nuanced southern twang without ever hitting notes of saccharine insincerity, your soul would have to be stone-cold to resist its affecting propensities.

Throughout the record, Hill exhibits the dynamism of his tenderness, moving from piano-driven ballads like inevitable to the storming synth-pop vulnerability in 1D. It is a masterstroke of a release that positions this former behind-the-scenes force as an icon of alt-pop intimacy in his own right. People won’t know whether to grab a tissue or a pen and paper to write a love letter to this self-aware, genre-fluid visionary.

They Control the Volume is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Connect with Cooper Hill on Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast