Review Summary: You try to say we can't; well yes I can!
Moneen –
The Red Tree (2006)
Band Members
Erik Hughes – Bass/Vocals
Peter Krpan – Drums/Vocals
Kenny Bridges – Synth/Piano/Guitar/Vocals/Strings/Keyboards
Chris “Hippy” Hughes – Synthesizer/Vocals/Whale Sounds/Guitar
Moneen is a Canadian Pop-Punk band: they released
The Red Tree following their moderately successful album
Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now? While their previously album suffered from a lack of big budget production and having an extremely long title, The Red Tree has neither problem. This album is posh, clean, and sounds, honestly, as if it was perfectly produced. Obviously some would differ, but there isn’t much wrong production-wise with this album. Of course, the way the music is presented doesn’t mean *** if the music sucks. Moneen, however, have made a damn good album.
The opening track,
Don’t Ever Tell Locke What He Can’t Do, is one of the best tracks to ever come out of Moneen, and it showcases everything that’s great about them on this album: atmosphere. While many bands can claim they create an atmospheric sound (Mogwai, Kidcrash, Bright Eyes, to name a few), Moneen is very competent in creating the mood of the album, largely thanks to a big production value that doesn’t go to waste. The first track opens with a burst of drums and does a quick build into the rest of the album. I’m almost disappointed to say that the end of the first song is the best part of this album, but the last 32 seconds of it are just perfect, from the chorus in the background to the guitar melody prancing under Kenny's cries of “You try to say we can’t, well YES I CAN!,” the ending is just damn catchy and uplifting it almost makes it difficult to go on to the next track (please don't stop here, though).
Now, while the next 10 tracks may not exactly jump out like the first, the rest of
The Red Tree is by no means the ugly friend to the babe that is
Don’t Ever Tell Locke What He Can’t Do. Moneen has always wanted to create an epic sound, and while before they’d been constrained by various factors, this album has a large amount of epic and soaring moments that create the atmosphere of the album.
If Tragedy’s Appealing, Disaster’s an Addiction’s last buildup is a perfect example of Moneen’s epic qualities: it has a perfect choral harmony, with pounding drums and soaring guitars, albeit having a fairly quick end that puts a damper on what could have potentially been a really amazing ending.
The Day No One Needed to Know is like the antithesis to
Tragedy, having not only one delicious ending, but two; the first is like the moment near an orgasm, it’s sweet and short (comparatively) with pounding drums and guitars over background shouts of “Nothing’s Okay!”, and reaches a momentary pause of Kenny's lone voice that explodes into a beautiful climax of vocals and sweeping guitars and drums.
The Frightening Reality that We Will All Have To Grow Up and Settle Down One Day (damn that’s a long name) has some of the best lyrics on the album, coupled with a perfect delivery.
“One day soon I'll realize I fooled myself.
One day soon I'll be the evil one in time to realize
Who is she?
Who are they?
Who am I?
One day soon I'll realize
You're never dead until the day you die.”
The East Has Stolen What The West May Want opens with Kenny and a single guitar line; his voice isn’t exactly a perfect sound, and may even grate on the ears after multiple listens, but it gets the job done, and Moneen just wouldn’t be who they were without that voice. The song is built around dynamics, from a voice/guitar duo simply exploding into full band chaos, which slowly depreciates into a softer and softer sound and then builds up again, only to meet a full stop for Kenny to say “Love” just once, and then jump right back into motion, and every track has the same sense of dynamics, which is probably what creates the atmosphere of the album, that it goes from loud to soft with such quickness, and is able to build and fall just as easily. Of course, they’re neither the first nor the last band to use a loud/soft approach, but Moneen is certainly one of the better bands to use this technique.
On a complete tangent, you’ll notice that you can actually hear the bass on this album.
The Song I Swore to Never Sing is the token soft ending; it’s piano and guitars plus crazy electronic noise coupled with soft and emotional lyrics. That’s not to say it’s a bad song, but it’s just not the ending you’d want to have on an album so packed with energy and promise for an epic conclusion.
There are a few tracks I didn’t mention, not out of spite or because they’re terrible songs (because every track on this album is good, although the last stands out as the worst), but because it would do no good to completely labor over every track, especially since this album is fairly consistent in sound and quality throughout the album. Suffice to say, the tracks not mentioned are good, but they’re nothing new or special. That being said, this album as a whole is consistent, filled with great moments, though sometimes disappointing; however, the good nearly doubles the bad.
Recommended Tracks
Don’t Ever Tell Locke What He Can’t Do
The Day No One Needed To Know
The Frightening Reality that We Will All Have To Grow Up and Settle Down One Day
The East Has Stolen What the West May Want
4/5
