Although out for a year as an import, this one's only recently received domestic release. Any consideration of Julian Cope tends to focus on his "mad" ideas (as if corporate greed, violent sexism, and religious sadism were the height of sanity), and Interpreter might indeed be read as a concept album about pre-Christian stone circles, extraterrestrial inspiration, and Mother Earth energies. Thankfully, though, Cope brings focus to his usual musical potpourri and a sense of humor to leaven the heaviness. In fact, Cope remains admirable for the sheer, loopy intensity of his ideas and his willingness to do what he wants, regardless of what anyone else thinks of it. Most of the songs on this album find the lost intersection where garage rock, psychedelia, and kosmische-musik meet. The opening "I Come from Another Planet, Baby" melds its pulsing motorik sequencer beat with stomping guitars and drums and dresses the whole thing up in a sumptious but attractively tattered wardrobe of mellotron and tricked-out production, topped with a tongue-in-cheek vocal. "Planetary Sit-In" is one of several songs displaying Cope's rediscovered pop sense, filled with marzipan ooh-las, stately chord progressions recalling his first solo album's classic "Greatness and Perfection," and Spirit of '66 strings. And "S.P.A.C.E.R.O.C.K. with Me" is sheer crazed genius, with a sci-fi chord progression à la Roxy Music's "Out of the Blue" powering its catchy chorus - which is delivered by an Yma Sumac-like guest soprano. The album sags a bit in the middle, with the epic "Battle for the Trees" and "Maid of Constant Sorrow" recalling the intensely bewildering diversity of his 1994 Autogeddon: still, this is Cope's most accessible release in years, with its garage-based focus on energetic songs gaining added interest from his usual inventive arrangements.

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