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Steve Baylin — The Ottawa Xpress — Oct 2006
At first blush, Vancouver’s Coco Love Alcorn, much like Britain’s current it girl Corrine Bailey Rae, finds sonic comfort reveling in the true blue triad of old school soul, and R&B staples: namely, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Al Green. However, where Leeds’ leading lady serves up a nice light snack, Alcorn, whose rich, limber, voice whispers and swoons with precision, starts at a full boil and takes care to deliver a sumptuous, simmering full course meal. Produced by fret guru Steve Dawson (does he ever sleep?), Sugar’s songs linger and burn like a long, goodbye embrace: a quality that ignites some tracks (“Out Of Sight”, “Falling Into You”) and weighs down others (“There Is A Light”). Still, its’ a minor quibble on what is otherwise a star turn.
24 Vancouver — Oct 2006
Alcorn is a true performer with the talent and originality to help us get back into caring about good, original music. Alcorn has managed to deliver to music fans that which is all too rare in this age of cookie-cutter bands and corporate facades: An original sound. Coco has returned to her jazz and folk roots to bring us one of the year’s best records thus far, Sugar.
monkeybiz.ca — Feb 2007
Her name alone entices one to check out her vocal talents: Coco Love Alcorn. The jazz and folk roots influenced artist from Vancouver appears at Hamilton’s Casbah Lounge on February 21 (accompanied by Hunter Eves and Cat Jahnke). Coco will be performing tracks from Sugar, her first all-original collection of songs.
After singing and touring with 54-40, opening for artists such Chantal Kreviazuk, Ani DiFranco, and Jesse Cook, playing the likes of Lilith Fair and The Stardust Picnic, and making videos with Kinnie Star, Coco has been a unique and powerful Canadian musical force for over a decade. Coco Love Alcorn is an artist whose time has truly come.
Produced by and featuring Steve Dawson, Sugar also features Chris Gestrin (K-os, Kate Hammett-Vaughn) on keys, John Raham (Kinnie Starr, The Be Good Tanyas) on drums and Keith Lowe (Fiona Apple, Bill Frisell) on standup bass.
Acoustic folk, R&B, pop and jazz all blend together to produce an assured yet delightfully nuanced, down tempo gem that leaves plenty of room for Coco’s seductive alto voice to shine. Featuring co-writes with Lennie Gallant, Kevin Coles, and her father John Alcorn, the album focuses on themes of love, angels, and the power within. Masterfully wrought by Dawson, Sugar will most likely draw comparisons to the work of Canadian female luminaries such as Jane Siberry, Holly Cole, and k.d. lang.
Pile on your winter gear and come to Coco’s show to warm up and discover her extraordinary voice for yourself.
SooToday.com — Slackhopper — Mar 2007
Only one other voice can move me as much as that of my all-time favourite singer, the late great Ella Fitzgerald. That voice belongs to Coco Love Alcorn.
Daughter of jazz musician John Alcorn, it’s no wonder she has chosen a musical path in life. But through her engaging style, this is no regular path. Coco Love has gracefully infused it with jazz, folk, pop, soul and R&B, artfully finished with a delightful dollop of whimsy. The result is a sound as irresistible and intriguing as her name.
But to fully experience Coco Love, a live performance is necessary. The stage is where she lets the stunning beast loose as all the influences she encompasses - Cassandra Wilson, k.d. Lang, Aretha Franklin - sensually traverse from the tips of her toes to their final delicate escape through her beautiful lips.
As she sways and snaps to the music, Coco Love engages each and every audience member through focused eye contact and a wide smile. Making everyone feel as though she is singing only to them, you can’t help but be drawn as deep as she is into each note. And just when things are about to get too intense or serious, she’ll crack a joke and start the seduction all over again.
Ottawa Express — Lara Purvis — Feb 07
The reason it feels so good to stand beside a waterfall is not the beauty of the clean, rushing water nor its refreshing spray, but actually the rush of negative ions that the waterfall emits. Negative ions create good vibes. For real.
Being in the company of Coco Love Alcorn is a similar experience. It’s not just because she’s beautiful (which she is), and it’s more than her gifted voice. It’s the incredible rush of creative inspiration that she shares. Like negative ions, it feels good just to be around that buzz.
In a phone interview from her home in Vancouver, only a day before leaving on tour, Alcorn gushed about her album, Sugar, and the new artistic ventures that are keeping her up at night. But first we clarified the first question on most writers’ minds - her name, is it real?
“Yup. There may have been a lag of an hour or so, between when I arrived and when they chose my name. Alice was an option, and Tico, a Hawaiian name. Maybe it was Coco Chanel that made them think of it? I guess I just seemed like a Coco.”
Sugar was a long time in the making - a full eight years. This wasn’t only because Alcorn was busy with several other projects (54-40, Paloma, Joystick) but also because there was concern over the eclecticism of Coco’s material.
“I felt pressure for years to pick a genre. I guess that’s why there was so long between solo records. I always had this feeling from managers and people in the industry that they needed to know what to call it. Like if I put something out that was jazz and then put something out that was R&B, that they wouldn’t know how to shelve me.”
An epiphany and a bit of luck resulted in the ballsy release that is Sugar. “I started to just kind of realize that I was always going to be eclectic. And I was always going to like improvising and playing in the jazz genre, but also always love R&B groove stuff like Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu, Aretha Franklin, and also always love the songwriters like Joni Mitchell. I needed to blend those pieces and make it all cohesive.”
Described by Alcorn as “acoustic-jazz-folk-R&B-groove-pop,” the end result is a bright burst of colour amidst the many shades of indie grey.
