Monster-0 …And Then There Were Zero Omega Point Records www.monster-0.com

Monster-0 is like a hydra with many heads, each one having its own personality.  One momement it’s wry, indie songwriting, the next electroclash, the other witty, instrospective ballads.  Though overall good, the albums suffers from the disjointed melding of genres.  There are more misses that hits on this release, though when Monster-0 nails it they almost make up for it.

They are at best when they slow things down, as seen in the slight, ethereal bleeps of “Burt Bacharach Was Right,” a song that is sweet but not sickeningly so.  It’s cynical, immature, and tad self-important, exactly like teenage love.  Later on the disc the band gets it right again, with the dirty guitar opening of the Joy Division sounding “I Just Might” where Daemon Hatfield revealingly sings that “I think I might just be who I want to be.”  It sounds as if the singer is coming to terms with adulthood, causing the reader to nod in agreement.

That’s not to say that everything has to be slow and dreary.  Monster-0 also show that they can have a harder edge (“Take Me Down”), or be excitedly poppy, as on “Thanks A Lot” and the moment during “Photograph” where it sounds like the next lyric will be “forever my love” a la the Beatles, yet segues into something else.

Overall it’s a decent release that pleases in spite of too many clunkers, not because of shining tracks.

Copyright © Michael A. Diaz