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People are going bat-shit bonkers for these guys/this album and I’m not sure why because I think it’s kinda boring.

I’ve had Menomena on my periphery for several years now but I’ve never invited them in to my music collection. The band’s last album, Friend and Foe, came very close and I could even go as far as saying I like several of the songs on that album. But again, I didn’t like them enough to bring them in and include them on my iTunes mix. So naturally, when this album came up for review I was pretty gosh darn hesitant to do a review. But no one else jumped on it so here I go:

I fucking love this album. Dead serious here you guys. I love this album so much that I am seriously considering downloading Friend and Foe the second I finish this review.

With Mines, Menomena has released something they can be truly proud of. The songs are manic and boisterous and groovy and crazy and most of all really fun to listen to. It’s amazing that just three dudes are producing the sound explosion that comes out of your (insert preferred listening device here) speakers.

Without a doubt the best song on here, and the one that will likely seal the deal for you if you are on the fence about Menomena, is the single “Five Little Rooms.” If you listen to the song and can’t get into the bass/sax combo then I feel sorry for you because that shit is murderous it’s so good.

I highly recommend this album. I’m not sure if my love of this stems from the awesomeness of the album or from the fact that its awesomeness caught me so off guard but either way I am digging it – in a major way.

For some reason when I loaded this album onto my favorite mp3 player for the first time, the order of the songs switched around – the album has some sort of bonus track action so it lists out two “track 1” options and blah blah blah I finally figured it out. Like just now. Ok, this isn’t a review on having my head up my ass.

Ok, so first time through I was stuck on “Dead Hearts” – I love the melody and the production… it really flows in and out giving it this…. Ghostly (oh bummer) feel? The struggle I had with the song was the eerie dialogue; “tell me everything that happened,” “they had lights inside their eyes”. I was expecting one of the voices to start talking about the evil orks and the nasty elvin warriors – I had this flash of some sort of concept album centered around a particularly rousing D&D game. Luckily this was not the case. At all.

The pop-ish melodies with hugely synthetic sounds are contagious, and the harmonies are fantastic. Very pretty – all of it. I find myself drawn to the “bonus” tracks – the remixes placed at the end of the album (but which play on my little mp3 device near the beginning because… well… because they apparently want to).

For the record, “The Last Song Ever Written” is my favorite song this week. ‘tis the bomb. Like the kids mean it.

Big Boi and Andre 3000 are at their best when they are together – or so I thought. Before listening to Big Boi’s new album, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, that’s what I would have said. But now, having given Sir Lucious Left Foot a good 10 or so listens, I can say this is the best album that has come out of the Outkast camp in years. Years. Of course it does help that the last good album to come out of the Outkast camp was Stankonia, 10 years ago.

This album is refreshing. This album is smooth. This is the best Summer album I’ve heard. The beats are great and Big Boi’s flow and rhymes only prove to the world that there is a sever shortage of Big Boi.

Not every song on here is a winner but with 17 tracks, that’s bound to happen. The lead single “Shutterbug,” “Be Still,” “Night Night” and “Daddy Fat Sax” are true stand outs. And most of the rest follow closely behind.

I recommend this album as the perfect Summer soundtrack for everyone – except Mel Gibson. That asshole is a fucking racist asshole and should never enjoy an awesome thing for the rest of his life.

I so needed that.

As with most of the reviews I’ve done for Music Boxer, I haven’t heard much if any of Minus the Bear’s previous work, but after soaking in Omni that could very well change.

I dropped this album into the music box (or however the kids say it these days – it was loaded on my mp3 player in the ’86 toyota I call the Monster Truck) and was kickin’ around town when it occurred to me I was in the most fabulous mood ever. Keeping it to the point, I attribute this moto-euphoria not to the leaky exhaust manifold or dehydration from the 103F temps with a busted AC, but to the hook-a-plenty sweet soul sounds of Minus the Bear. The groove they lay down is hugely contagious, and had I been alive in the 60’s (and had my mp3 player with Omni loaded) I would have been taking over the roller rink with some phat bell bottoms (dangly pom-pom things? Oh hells yes) and sequined roller skates to ALL of the tracks on Omni.

By the second time through I was singing along, and there is no sitting still to this album. I think I was even doing the clenched-fist-microphone (no, didn’t take it to the full look upward with the fist release to open hand move a la George Michael, but I could have. Just sayin’.) while driving around the Monster Truck. It’s just straight up fun, all day, every day. The production is thick, the range of instruments and sounds makes all the songs full and interesting…. and utterly diggable.

It was just what I needed.