jenny
jenny
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Menomena

Posted almost 5 years ago
Here's my belated opinion of Menomena's excellent new album Friend and Foe, out since January on Barsuk."Friend and Foe sounds like pop songs put through a blender for a few seconds, great slippery chunks of melody whacked to varying sized bits and discontinuously abutting outsized drum beats, brash piano chords and ska-town squawks of saxophone. There are moments of achingly pure pop that float up out of the chaos, tantalize briefly, then slip back into the mix." (and more here: http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/3417)MP3 of "Wet and Rusting"http://barsukmusic.blaireau.net/Menomena_WetAndRusting.mp3
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Comments (7)

  1. petenema
    petenema says Another album I've been looking forward to acquiring. Thanks for the teaser, it makes me want to listen to it even more.
    Permalink posted 03/02/2007
  2. kellywatchthestars
    kellywatchthestars says Friend and Foe is one of those albums that is both immediately likable and gets better and better with repeated listens. Already a top contender for my favorite album of 2007.
    Permalink posted 03/02/2007
  3. gregrmurphy
    gregrmurphy says I will just add that I probably haven't paid enough attention to the music yet because the cover art for this CD is unbelievable. I'm usually a downloady guy and can't even remember the last time I bought a CD for the artwork (even partially), but seeing pictures of this really doesn't do it justice. There are die-cut holes and images on the disc itself that change as you turn it, and all these odd little complicated doodles. Nice work Craig Thompson.
    Permalink posted 03/02/2007
  4. gregrmurphy
    gregrmurphy says I will just add that I probably haven't paid enough attention to the music yet because the cover art for this CD is unbelievable. I'm usually a downloady guy and can't even remember the last time I bought a CD for the artwork (even partially), but seeing pictures of this really doesn't do it justice. There are die-cut holes and images on the disc itself that change as you turn it, and all these odd little complicated doodles. Nice work Craig Thompson.
    Permalink posted 03/02/2007
  5. jenny
    jenny says That sounds really cool. I never got to see the art...I'll have to go to a decent record store and check it out.
    Permalink posted 03/02/2007
  6. DerekSunshine
    DerekSunshine says I like the review. The first two times I played this CD on my radio show, someone called to ask who it was. I was reading somewhere about the "sing-along" appeal of the Beatles; basically, how the Beatles could wed these very memorable melodies with increasingly complex production. Menomena's melodies have that similar, singable quality but over top of phenomenally dense instrumentation. In fact, I'd say their more melodic that TVotR in that way.
    Permalink posted 03/05/2007
  7. jenny
    jenny says Hi, Jack...weird, the first couple of weeks I had this on shuffle, I would *always* think it was TVOTR whenever it came on. Nobody else seems to hear this. There must be something wrong with me. But I agree with you about the pop and the density...it's very tricky what they're doing and they seem to have gotten it just about perfectly in balance. Interesting to see what they do next.
    Permalink posted 03/05/2007

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