5 out of 5

Label: Cutting Hedge

Produced by: ?

Part of the bandcamp blurb for People Like Us’ Copia explains the album title as follows: “The title “COPIA,” meaning ‘abundance’ and ‘copy,’ reflects the essence of collage and sampling.” The album dropped mid-2024; later in the year in the US – an election year – I’d start to hear the slang “copium” make a return from the early 2020s, which combines “cope” with “opium.” I’m not sure where this falls into the discussion, but it seems relevant: People Like Us’ abundance of copying as presented on COPIA may also be a mind-numbing way of navigating the times in which it was released, as well as being representative of an unfortunate zeitgeist of history repeating.

This is a negative way to kick things off. But here’s the thing: Copia is affecting. Almost overwhelmingly so. Vicki Bennett, as People Like Us – often working with collaborators, as she does here again, with the likes of Ergo Phizmiz, Gwilly Edmondez, and more – often steps into the realm of more emotive fare (versus a default mode of explorative), but it was rarer during the blunter cut-and-paste style of early works, and then juxtaposed against the unavoidable and purposeful dunks into goofiness from the various samples and loops she’s used over the years.

The late 2010s seemed to indicate a subtle shift towards layering her compositions around melodies, creating a more seamless song-like structure – but it’s probably truer to link this to when Vicki started working with Ergo Phizmiz in the late 00s, and they’ve been getting closer and closer to a synthesis of their styles. Ergo is credited quite a bit on COPIA; credited with “lyrics and melodies.” Stepping from the excellent The Mirror in 2018 to this album, we can hear an indulgence in richer, fuzzier moods and sounds, digging into the nostalgic samples of classics but rerendering them into syrupy waltzes; twilight beats. The album is not without a kind of reliable PLU tap-your-toes constant rhythm, it’s just that’s it’s layered not only sonically, but emotionally as well, adding in the highs and lows that The Mirror sometimes lacked, and creating a definitive release for this era of Vicki’s output.