Mona: Listen To Your Love

MONA

Listen To Your Love

Single ^DEBUT

Released 13/09/2010

Limited edition 7-inch, 300 pieces^{SOLD OUT}
and download only

Tracklisting:

A / LISTEN TO YOUR LOVE 3:19

B / ALL THIS TIME -:-- (exclusive to vinyl)

"Along the way I saw how a song could enrage, heal, speak love, seduce, calm, provoke, challenge and surrender. All in three minutes. That's what we're all about" ^{Nick Brown, MONA}

Nick Brown is MONA's vocals, guitar and keys man and his reference to a song's emotive capacity strikes a true note with the material the band have released to date. MONA are a four-piece based in Nashville, Tennessee and have upheld something of a non-existence until recently, with just two songs and one demo uploaded on their MySpace page, acquiring a solid fan base and a very agreeable position as support on The Libertines' upcoming tour.

Their limited release of music can be deceiving: the band allege that in the past twelve months they have written somewhere in the region of 750 songs. Nick goes some way to explain, "It was half not being able to trust anyone with our music... and half just not wanting to play any music to anyone until we felt we were absolutely ready for this". This sentiment could be crippling, but the perfectionism results in expertly honed songs that sound confident and established: less like a first attempt at being a band. An inspiring feat.

All of which you can experience with their first release, Listen To Your Love, on their own label Zion Noiz Recordings. Listen To Your Love is an accomplished track and will undoubtedly become their anthemic go-to, all contemplative verse, amplifying hook and impassioned chorus that it is. All members excercise their instruments with such authenticity that the band is united in these three minutes of frustration and angst: it is not frontman and band, but band as one. This alone validates Brown's assertion that the potential of creating tangible emotion in songs is the foundation of their work; however, it is far from their best gear. Shoot The Moon (which can be streamed via their MySpace page) reveals a much more likeable and current sound. It carries both a swagger and a sense of urgency: it is raw, seductive, charismatic. Shoot The Moon makes it easy to compare them to fellow Tennesseans Kings of Leon, whereas Listen To Your Love is more Razorlight with muscles. Listen To Your Love has it's merits technically, but sounds dated. Be sure to check out Shoot The Moon and their demo Lines In The Sand on their MySpace page and expect to hear a lot more about this band by the year's end.

Listen To Your Love is out now. Available as a 7-inch vinyl distributed through Rough Trade shops and other key stores: this is limited to 300 copies and includes an exclusive b-side, All This Time (only available through vinyl). You can also download from iTunes here.

MONA are playing:

Thursday 30th, September 2010
19:00 / IN-STORE PERFORMANCE / ROUGH TRADE EAST, LONDON ^{FREE WITH WRISTBAND}


Friday 1st, October 2010
21:30 / CLUB NME / KOKO, LONDON ^£5

Web www.monatheband.com
MySpace www.myspace.com/monatheband
Facebook MONA
Twitter @MONATHEBAND

Marina And The Diamonds - The Family Jewels

Label: 679 Recordings
Release Date: 22nd February 2010
Format: Album - CD, digital download

Tracklisting:
1. Are You Satisfied? 3:21 2. Shampaign 3:12 3. I Am Not A Robot 3:35 4. Girls 3:29 5. Mowgli's Road 3:13 6. Obsessions 3:30 7. Hollywood 3:26 8. The Outsider 3:17 9. Hermit The Frog 3:36 10. Rootless 3:29 11. Numb 4:17 12. Guilty 3:43 The Family Jewels is essentially Marina's usual unwieldy panache (howls, cackles, and the rest) blended into an altogether more digestable form for the masses. The comparisons to other alternative women in music ("The next Kate Bush"/"2010s Florence") are rife but these really hold little water. As apprehended, The Family Jewels has unquestionably been slaughtered by the popular cookie-cutter. As recently as the beginning of this year the Sugababes and Marina Diamandis would have been polar opposites, yet now they line up rather more closer in respect of changing to fit a mould. Highlights on the album mainly consist of old favourites that Marina's existing fanbase will relish (Mowgli's Road, Obsessions, and Hermit the Frog) but fans will most likely find little other comfort in Marina's offerings, at least on first, second, third (or fourth?..) listen. Numb is an exception, a delicate track that feels susceptible to listen to, it's lyrics betraying a personal vulnerability and wonderful emotion from Marina much akin to what can be found in Obsessions. The popularisation of the new material strikes an off-chord, at least it will to a new listener. The album is an unfortunate clash between trying to be "super pop" and "really indie", as Marina describes the new album, which places it on very unstable ground as far as sales go. Many of the tracks will leave the new listener feeling exhausted having been harangued with Marina's plethora of voices, hoots, laughter and whistles (these happen in quick succession of each other in most tracks). With a certain level of understanding of past releases you can get behind the new popular facade that masks The Family Jewels. On deeper listens, one can uncover lyrical gems that initially charmed me to Marina in the first place - but it remains a question mark. Has it cut the mustard? Perhaps not. But do lend an ear - it is an interesting listen. You can pre-order the album on all major online retailers or via iTunes. Hollywood, the current single, is out now on CD and digital download.