Album Review: Menomena – Mines
Menomena (a made up word, to save you looking it up!), an indie rock three piece from Portland, Oregon, have been making music together since 2001. Multi-instrumentalists they frequently swap instruments as well as each taking vocal duties, which is something of a relief as I was starting to doubt my sanity somewhat as from song to song the vocals seemed to change.
Mines is the fourth album from Menomena, though it’s the first I’ve heard, and it’s an interesting mix of art rock, indie and 70′s rock with a few ballads thrown. The album consists of 11 tracks, of which album opener ‘Queen Black Acid’ is my favourite. Though I don’t who sings on which tracks, whoever sings this has a voice loaded with emotion, you can almost feel his pain as he sings ‘I don’t know how I missed the signs/I must have passed by them a hundred times’. Elsewhere on tracks like ‘Oh Pretty Boy, You’re Such a Big Boy’ they sound like Blur in one of their more introspective moments. Comparison aside, Mines is an album that sounds like it really wants to rock out but never quite manages it, just as things sound like they’re going to get fast and furious they slam the brakes on. Even so Mines is an enjoyable album and good enough to make me want to check out their back catalogue. 3/5
www.myspace.com/menomena
www.menomena.com
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