A promising debut

Headline enters Bangladesh's music scene with the release of their debut studio album, "Finding Cooper". The album was released on December 20, 2017.

The music in the album is quite different from what we are used to. Headline experimented with different sub-genres of rock like post, math, progressive, techno, psychedelic, ambient, etc. According to the band, the main inspiration for the album came from Radiohead and Toe (a Japanese math rock band).

The album consists of 9 tracks and a lot of the tracks are instrumental. Personally, I was never a fan of instrumental music because I needed lyrics to keep me hooked to a song. But, it was not the case when I listened to this album. "Finding Cooper" starts off with the song Ocean's Highway. This instrumental gives you the feeling that you're going on a journey and it's perfect for an actual road trip as well. My absolute favourites from the album were My Friend, My Friend and Sleepless Nights, Blurred Eyes (which I'm sure will be a favourite to anyone who listens to the album). The album ends with the track, Take Surface, which is the most Radiohead song with the most Thom Yorke-esque vocal. 

Lyrically, the album does a wonderful job as well. Each of the songs actually makes you think and they're not just empty words made to fill the music. You can feel the emotions behind the lyrics. Another thing that really caught my attention was the artwork for each of the songs which were perfect.

Headline consists of 5 members; vocalist Nihal Chowdhury, guitarists Kazuki Kunimoto and Junaied Rayhan, bassist Sharar Shayor, and drummer Farhan Masud Dipto. It's very difficult to describe their music with just one word. According to the guitarist Kazuki Kunimoto, "Our music is for people who like to think. We understand that our music will not appeal to a mass crowd simply because it's so different from what has been done before; both in terms of songs and in terms of how we recorded the whole album. This album was recorded live, meaning we had to play each song for about 20 times on average to get one perfect take."

The inspiration for the name of the album came from this one incident. You see, Cooper was actually the name of the drummer's dog. Due to the lack of open spaces in the city, Cooper had to be kept confined. But there came a time when it was just impossible to keep him locked up like this and Dipto (the drummer) realized that no matter how much he loved Cooper he had to let him go. So, Dipto blindfolded Cooper and took him to an open field in Bashundhara. The blindfold was to ensure he couldn't follow him back. But after he left Cooper, the blind-fold had somehow dropped and when he turned back he saw Cooper just staring back at him without trying to come back. It was apparent that he understood what was being done to him. Later, Dipto kept going back to the place but he could never find any sign of Cooper again.

Again, I talked to the guitarist, Kazuki Kunimoto, about the meaning behind the album title and this is what he had to say, "You see, we lose things. Sometimes we lose them on purpose and sometimes they just get lost. And then we try to fill the empty void they leave behind with other things, or people, or objects, or places or anything. That's when we start looking for things that can replace that feeling of emptiness. This unnamed feeling of looking for something is called Cooper. It's a symbol - to find yourself."

Check out fb.com/Headline.TheBand to know more.