Monsters Of Folk (studio album) by Monsters Of Folk

A good record. Nice arrangements, choice of material and production.

A super-group that actually comes close to living up to being super. While the material never exceeds what any of the members have done on their own, it at least matches that quality which is much more than pretty much all super-groups ever accomplish.

From paladisiac 12/09/2011 18:10

When I think of indie supergroups that work well, I think of the new pornographers, a group that combined the indie pop of a.c. newman, the country folk of neko case and the abstract indie avant of dan bejar and threw together a new indie power rock pop entity (with tons of energy replete with wall-to-wall choruses). If new porn leans to any identity, they lean to a.c. newman, and the same dynamic works for monsters of folk too as jim james, m.ward, conor oberst and his mogis producer combine for some old-school, pop/rock/folk that for the most part leans towards the vision of oberst/mogis except for the otherworldly opener "dear god (sincerely m.o.f.)". This combination clicks almost all the time, from plaintive lead single "say please" and it's strong harmonies to the stop-start "oohm bop" of "losin' yo head" to the country bar flavor of "the right place", only losing a little steam in an oberst-sung "temazcal". Often these projects turn out to be vanity projects like chickenfoot or that foo/floyd/queens group (as 2009 examples). But this one works because it sounds like all 4 members really put a lot of thought, feeling and creativity into this collaborative effort. Monsters of folk indeed.