What is this, the second review in as many days? How is this possible, you say? Have I abandoned all responsibility and duty to Rules 1, 3 and 5?
I can assure you, I have not. Turns out a snowstorm provides plenty of opportunity for walking around, and that walking around tends to take a lot longer, on account of so many people not shoveling their sidewalks. This makes for premium music-listening time, along with the bonus of headphones keeping my ears warm.
So here you go, another review before 2022 leaves us behind, and we enter the (likely cold) embrace of 2023.
Disc 1609 is…Self-Titled
Artist: MUNA
Year of Release: 2022
What’s up with the Cover? Meet the band! Or at least I assume this is the band. That Jack White gaffe from a couple of reviews ago has me nervous…
How I Came To Know It: I read a review, and decided to check them out. This is the usual way I discover music, so apologies if it feels repetitive.
How It Stacks Up: I only have this one MUNA album, so no stacking possible.
Ratings: 3 stars
MUNA’s self-titled third album should have a different name. Bands that fail to name their first album eponymously have missed their window forever. However, once I got past this particular pet peeve and settled in for a listen, I liked what I heard.
MUNA is an all-woman trio that perform pop music and are very good at it. Lead singer Katie Gavin has a pretty voice and while she doesn’t blow the doors off, she has a likeable tone that is easy on the ears and well-suited to the style. These songs are pure pop, and demand the reliable sweetness that Gavin provides, even if the lyrics and structure have just a hint of indie spice about them.
These songs have production well suited for the radio, but I have no idea if they get played there. I hope so, because the songwriting is heartfelt and true to itself and the radio could use more of that. I assume.
As for topics, these feel like “adventurous older sister” songs. I’ve never had an older sister, but I imagine these are the sorts of stories she’d have shared with me if I had. Basically a mix of party music and the joy of self-discovery.
On the let’s party front, “What I Want” is a worthy entry in the genre. It is a song about drinking too much, putting unknown drugs in your mouth, dancing your ass off and lusting for the girl in leather across the bar. It is a night out with the kind of recklessness reserved for youth (I should have noted I imagine this older sister character to be in her twenties, not someone actually older than me…).
“Silk Chiffon” has the sort of specific, poetic approach to its lyrics that initially had me favourably comparing it to the Tragically Hip (it might have just been the opening line of “Sundown and I'm feeling lifted” making me think of the start of “Wheat Kings”). In any event, the song quickly takes a tight pop turn that the Hip would not follow. This song is like its title: airy and romantic. It is dappled sunlight, a light breeze, and a bit of summer love.
On the raunchier side of romance, “No Idea” employs a low club-type thump that oozes sex, even as the lyrics admit to a desire lurking just below the surface of all that innocent-looking romance of the earlier “Silk Chiffon.”
MUNA can also be delightfully nasty. The opening lines of “Anything but Me” uses a matter-of-fact delivery to a deliver a diss that always puts a smile on my face:
“You're gonna say
that I'm on a high horse
I think that my horse is regular-sized
Did you ever think maybe
You're on a pony
Going in circles on a carousel ride?”
Nice.
The music on the record does not break any new ground, and while it is all solid, I didn’t often feel drawn deeply in. The closes I came was with “Kind of Girl” which is a Katie Pruitt style confessional. It features a young woman growing comfortable into herself, while also aware that time will continue to change her.
Overall, MUNA is a good record and worth a listen. If you don’t like pop music, then you might find the song construction a bit boring, but who doesn’t like pop music if it is done well? What kind of monster are you?
Best tracks: Silk Chiffon, What I Want, Kind of Girl, Anything But Me, No Idea
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