“Little furry things” is listed as one of Monzano’s influences on their Myspace page. Further down it says “the color of the back of CD’s”. Monzano is definitely trying very hard to be cute. They partly succeed, but they remind me of candy floss, and I can always only finish about half of those. By This Time Last Year Everything Will Seem Younger is the band’s second album and apart from being cute, it is melodic and sometimes annoying.
Monzano doesn’t invent a new pop recipe, but they follow the current one accurately. Their debut album from 2007, High Horses & One Trick Ponies, consisted of songs of the perfect pop length, all between 2–4 minutes, easy listening and again, oh, we keep coming back to it, cute. By This Time Last Year Everything Will Seem Younger is wild and reckless compared; they have a track that lasts 5:17 minutes. But — back to the pop recipe Monzano have taped to their rehearsing studio wall: They have perfectly timed bridges and choruses, the different music elements blends lovely together and soft vocals guide you through the songs.
The lyrics are an important part of Monzano, and Sjur Lyseid is one of the more talented lyricists in the country. Some of the songs have a lovely poetic backbone, but then there are the lesser favourable with phrases like “Let’s find a house by the coast, where you can finish your novel with the ghosts”. Aware that I might sound like an old Norwegian teacher, I have to say I would love to see Lyseid write in his mother tongue. The result could be extraordinary.
So it’s not all bad. Of course it isn’t. Cynicisms aside, Monzano is one of Norway’s more pleasant and charming pop bands. You can easily take a liking to “Cold Waters”. But that is about the only track possible to differentiate from the rest. However, the album works well as a background commodity to a weekly reminiscing excursion of lonely streets, rainy days and duvet-covered Sundays.
If you like candy floss and little furry things, I would recommend you buy By This Time Last Year Everything Will Seem Younger, but most likely by this time next year it will seem dreary.
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One Response to “Too cute for school”
Benjamin Sand - April 20th, 2010 at 11:27
I like windows. I peer out from them time to time. They’re cute. I like puppies. But- only in summer when their coats don’t get wet. I have no problem with kittens but sometimes they are nasty. They are most definitely not cute. Hi hi. Sometimes the weather is bad. Sometimes its nice and clear and sunny. I like those days. I walk around with my umbrella just in case it rains. I am fond of ice-creams. I like eating them when its windy.
When I grow up I want to be a writer. I want to verbalize my thoughts and then lay them out in paragraphs on crisp white paper. I like pens. Yellow and red ones the most. But sometimes I like black one’s if I am not feeling so good. I have a large smile. My hair is curly. Nice to meet you all.