Across 13 keenly observed and beautifully orchestrated songs, Julian Cope’s new album Self Civil War heaves with unrest and the spirit of 2020. Pure Cope: compelling earworms of barbarian intelligence. Crammed with songs that reach deep inside you, each possessed of its own micro-worldview, Self Civil War showcases Cope’s songwriting at its most searching since Jehovahkill. Road-testing the zeitgeist with kitchen sink psycho-dramas like A Dope on Drugs, Your Facebook, My Laptop and Billy, Self Civil War also showcases the insightful Heroic Ballads Einstein,You Will Be Mist and The Great Raven. In typical Cope stylee,the 13 songs of Self Civil War brim with sound FX, enormous orchestral arrangements, timeless uprisings of Ur-folk and hefty near-Krautrock anthems.