| CD REVIEW The Monroes |
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Band : The Monroes Hard to believe this Groningen (North Holland) based Garage Rock band was formed in 2002, and is only releasing its debut album now (they díd release a 2004 demo; contributed tracks to two compilation albums in 2005, and released a cybersingle as well as a vinyl 7-inch single that same year; and eventually made a promo cd-R for the UK)! You might ask me why that is…I mean, the hars to believe thing, not the fact that they’ve been around so long without a release as that is a mystery to me as well, see…because you might feel that after all there’s more than enough Garage Rock bands to make for some stiff competition, right!? Well, you know, The Monroes’ music (produced by singer/ guitarist Josje Kobes, guitarist/ backing singer Arnold Nieborg, electric and standing bass player Harry Kingma, and female drummer Lielan Tan), for the most part a ‘50s R&B and ‘60s Soul based Rock fuelled up with fuzzy guitar and surf elements, IS enhanced with the incredibly soothing and sultry (but never overly sexually laden) voice of their front woman, which doés give the whole avery own face and uniqueness! The band at one time called their music “Tarantino Pop”, then moved to calling it “Pop songs which give you the same desolate melancholic feeling you get from a David Lynch movie”. The truth lays somewhere in between, but the end result is still a beautiful slightly Psychedelic Garage Rock/ Pop with that occasional twang of Surf (the sound produuced through the use of a vintage Fender guitar, apparently)! 13 songs, each as nice as the other (even if you may find some favourite tracks yourself) make up for a total of only 36 minutes, far too little, considering included quite a bit of older tracks on this debut full-length! Me, I’m already looking out for the next album, you can get acquainted first by checking what’s available at myspace.comthemonroes…then run to the record store to get yourself a regular copy of the album! 90/100 Tony. |