The Monochrome Set – Maisieworld

They are always awesome and inspiring, but 'Maisieworld' is the best Monochrome Set yet in a long line of great. ...
Monochrome Set : Maisieworld
8.5 Tapete
2018 

The Monochrome Set : MaisieworldThey are always awesome and inspiring, but Maisieworld is the best Monochrome Set yet in a long line of great. Why? Because it does everything they always do with a still sentimental, but more down to earth than ever attitude, and one more happy than Cosmonaut (QRO review) even.

At least they are settled if not always happy in these jaunty tunes, but romance, where is the romantic fantasy, which is such a large part of The Monochorome Set’s glory? It is still there sometimes, but they are older, and for the better, sometimes it is more about the day to day for Bid and company now.

They still have cosmos, love, and life is in all the songs. The opening track, “Give Me Your Youth” is cynically solid and joyful pop-rock. “I Feel Fine (Really)”, “Stage Fright” “Silence is Rusty” are all varied in ambience, guitars, keys, and drama .

“Cyber Son” continues the strangeness of Cosmonaut and the happy guitar, but where things really get interesting is the track “Oh, Yes, I Will Be In Your Dreams Tonight”, and while it can be argued this is the type of joking irony and drama they have done before in “Starry Nowhere”, “Bliss’, or “Mousetrap”, it is also really solid.

Some of the tracks will feel farther into dream-pop than fan-familiar trippy but symphonic stuff, and it works in “Cyberson”, but also occasionally doesn’t in ones such as the light “Don’t Wear That Look” or the dark “Shallow”, which are both still decent. That said, what the release does exceptionally well in the end is play to the strengths of The Monochrome Set and it makes a point on the darkly psychedelic, “Mrs. Robot” or “Oh, Yes, I’m Going To Be In Your Dreams Tonight”, but it really shines on “Stage Fright”, “I Feel Fine (Really)”, “Cyberson “,“Silence is Rusty, or the folky “Maisieworld”.

Speaking of the title track “Maiseworld”, the last thing the latest Monochrome Set release does is show a cohesion from the first song, “Give Me Your Youth”, to the last, “Maisieworld”. This emotional and bright theme is a cynical one more akin to early ‘90s Charade, than the previous release, the all-over-the-place, Cosmonaut, and it works. There is a pain on Maisieworld, but mostly there is a lust for life that gives the listener an emotional, tearful, pause, and a sip of tea.

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