My main frustration with Stereolab was that their songs often descended into bland posturing, for every excellent pop song like ‘Cybeles Reverie’ and ‘Ping Pong’ there was always an eight-minute drone just round the corner. To put it bluntly, New York’s Monocle take out the boring bits and go straight for the jugular with their own brand of space-age pop and their debut album develops greatly from their promising first EP, 2006’s ‘Lounge Act’.
The virtually flawless ‘Gaspard’, ‘Green Future’ and ‘Music Of Space’ each boast euphoric choruses bolstered by strong female vocals. Even when they do experiment they pull it off – ‘Agent Earle’ begins in typical retro-futurist style but then twists into a shimmering wall of synths and glacial atmospheres. Meanwhile, the keyboards of main songwriter Rich Bennett create a disarmingly easy listening backdrop for Sunny Kim’s effortless tones on the breezy ‘Airphase’ .
There’s a definite shoegazing influence on several of the songs as Kim’s vocals are submerged into the all too familar “wall of sound” (the male vocals on ‘We Slip’ descend into a shoegaze pastiche and sound out of place in this company) but it’s all done within the boundaries of clever melody. So summing up, ‘Outer Sunset’ is definitely one of the most addictive alternative pop albums I’ve heard in recent years.
Web Sites:
Hidden Shoal Label Artist Page
Monocle MySpace
Further Listening:
Broadcast, Stereolab, Lush
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