Pop Matters' Ben Schumer's attempts to give the much-maligned 1994 album a critical face lift. Unfortunately, Schumer seems a lot more concerned with nostalgia and fawning over the record than he is with objectivity, and may fail to change minds regarding Monster's bargain bin/punch line status.
On a personal note, Schumer's piece did prompt us to re-listen to the album. Upon a couple of spins we immediately remembered why it is one of a handful of discs we actually returned to a record store shortly after purchasing it: Monster isn't the train wreck it's been purported to be over the years; it just sucks. Period.
2 comments:
worthless ... and strange currencies is essentially a rewrite of everybody hurts ... and i LIKE REM ... alot
One of the coolest but eventually most boring sounds in the world--if you don't spice it up, somehow--is a Gibson Les Paul guitar straight thru a Marshall amp. Peter Buck raved, at the time, of having discovered this combination for himself. Unfortunately, with the exception of adding some monotonous tremolo effect, the songs with a rawer sound on Monster just sound plain and boring. But at least they got a better grasp of their underdeveloped, harder rocking side in a much more effective way on the most recent album.
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