The Severed Cortex

Link: http://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Fun-Blame-Monster/dp/B0002VKZTS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-1514635-5264950?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1181004238&sr=8-2

I don't like this one near as much as Friend and Foe. It's similar in many respects, but as far as I'm concerned it's just not as good. Now I'm left wondering whether I would have even given Friend and Foe a listen had I bought this one first ... instead of the other way around. This release has a lot of good stuff on it, but compared to the latest release, I'd call this one juvenile. I don't mean that in a derogatory way, I just mean that the songs on I Am The Fun Blame Monster aren't fully formed. If it's true that their songs are based on random notes generated from a computer program that they wrote themselves, then version 2.0 of the computer software had a lot of features added. Version 1.0 must have rambled on endlessly jumping from style to style, sometimes even within the same song. I'm all for alternate song structures, but I don't necessarily count random as alternate. Anyone can do random.

I shouldn't talk so bad about this release because in the grand scheme of all the music being created today, this stuff is head and shoulders above 95% of what's out there. Any band that is willing to be this creative deserves some credit especially given that Friend and Foe is so good. Of course, no one knew that at the time Monster was being released. I have to confess that I'm not sure I would have known it at the time either. Apparently only a few did. I suspect that if Menomena is around for eight or ten full lengths, Monster will be viewed through different eyes. Right now it's a mixed bag for me.

If you took a chance on Friend and Foe and really want to see the roots of where that release came from, I encourage you to pick Monster up. For those that found the recent release still too unaccessible, you'll find that Monster is more unaccessible than that. If I had to pick a song on here to buy I'd go with The Monkey's Back. If I had to pick a song that is best representative of the whole release I'd go with Trigga Hiccups.