Agent Cooper - "Beginner's Mind" Review

Artist/ Band: Agent Cooper
Title: Beginner's Mind
Label: Zero Sum Records/ Progrock Records
Year of Release: 2005
Artist/ Band Link (click for details/ ordering)

The Review:

This is my first exposure to Agent Cooper. They’re part of what could be called the new American progressive Rock movement, even though they’re more rooted in the modern rock genre. To my ears I hear many influences both classic such as Kansas, Rush and Saga to the modern bands such as Tool, Dead Soul Tribe and King’s X to name a few. Agent Cooper takes these influences and forges their own take on progressive rock with the emphasis on the future sounds rather than emulating the past. If needed, one can include them in the same sentence as bands like Tiles and Enchant.

On Beginner’s Mind, the music is primarily straight forward sounding with some occasional odd, weirdness thrown in to spice up the mix. There’s just enough eclectic sounding passages in this album to satify fan’s of rock rooted progressive music as well as fans of modern rock. I’d even go as far as to say Agent Cooper is one of those bands that helps bridge the gap between the progressive and modern rock worlds. The band isn’t going to win any originality awards but they have an infectious vibe that makes revisiting their music a great pleasure. There’s no duds here, each track is memorable and takes you through a fantasic musical journey. Beginner’s Mind is one of the finer albums to be released on the Progrock Records label and gets a recommended buy from me.

Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on April 4th, 2006

Tracks:

1. East Indian Sun (5:34)

2. Shallow Disease (3:58)

3. In The Bottle (3:53)

4. Taipei (3:51)

5. Timing Crucial (4:57)

6. I Never Remember (3:47)

7. The Heat (4:45)

8. She Screams (4:08)

9. Struggle Like I Do (6:24)

10. You Know (4:50)