Moneen

Gone are the paragraph-long song titles, the endless whirls of delay and other anonymous sounds, and the havoc-wreaking start-stop tempo changes throughout songs. Moneen haven't thrown in the towel; they've simply moved on. While this could technically mark the quartet's "maturation phase," and it's hard to argue that point, they're not doing it in a prototypical way (i.e., by slowing everything down and adding orchestration to every song). Well, they have slowed things down considerably, and they have included softer moments of beauty ("Waterfalls," "The Way"), which only appeared sporadically on previous releases. But they've discovered a newfound edge as well. "The Long Count" and "The Glasshouse" are two ballsy, straight-up rock songs that strike hard from their first notes. Kenny Bridges's voice sounds stronger on this record than on all of the finest moments on their previous three albums. And bassist Erik Hughes has more opportunities to show off his well-tuned screaming. With songs such as "Believe" and "The Monument," Moneen prove they can combine mayhem with splendour. This is their watershed album.