How to live

"Modern Nature's songs might be heard as reminders that true escape isn't about splitting town, ghosting everybody you know, and throwing your phone in the ocean. How To Live uncovers an internal landscape just as wide open, much easier to get to, and even harder to escape from".

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"For the past few years, in a variety of guises - most notably fronting Ultimate Painting and Mazes - [Jack] Cooper has been making spindly indie-rock in deference to a certain unshowy school of American lo-fi ... "How To Live" is more of a creative evolution than a total break from Cooper's previous music - he still evidently loves Yo La Tengo - but there's a quiet new clarity and purpose at play, as if he's finally located the right environment, somewhere in the lay-bys of post-urban, semi-rural Britain ... The narrow tonal range veers close to monotony at times, but there's a satisfyingly stubborn focus to the album, too, as Cooper maps a trajectory away from the city (...) towards some place closer to a haunt of ancient peace".

"Blending [Jack] Cooper's [Ultimate Painting] whispered pastoral psych-folk with urban drones (the wonderfully withheld "Turbulence"), burbling motorik melodies (see "Nature" or "Footsteps") and some mellow jazz skronk, the resulting late-night mix is laser-targeted for those who have Talk Talk, The Notwist, Yo La Tengo and Clinic forever playlisted in their hearts. Fellow travellers Will Young (Beak/Moon Gangs), Aaron Neveu (Woods) and Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers) contribute their talents to what is a confident, considered but above all gorgeous debut".