Album Review: Monsters of Folk
Debut CD From Conor Oberst, Jim James, M Ward, and Mike Mogis
Sep 30, 2009
The wait is over. After a build up by the music media anxiously waiting for this album, the Monsters of Folk have finally released their self titled debut CD. The Quartet of Conor Oberst, M Ward, Jim James (credited as Yim Yames), and Mike Mogis offer up a strong debut, but one that falls short of this author’s lofty expectations.
Will Newest Supergroup, Monsters of Folk, Live Up to the Hype?
Monsters of Folk have been a work in progress since 2004, according to their website. After touring together five years ago, they found a unique synergy despite their varied styles, and decided to collaborate. Monsters of Folk is the child of that collaboration.
At first glance, it is hard to imagine these four working together. M Ward comes from a rootsy background, whereas Jim James’s band My Morning Jacket is on the other end of the Folk spectrum, if it can be considered Folk at all. Meanwhile, Conor Oberst, both with Bright Eyes and alone, follows his own muse down whatever road it may go.
Despite this, the three of them, plus Bright Eyes member Mike Mogis, who also produced the album, put together a CD that, while it does not completely live up to the overwhelming hype preceding it, is still a very good album.
Monsters of Folk’s Songs Range From Atmospheric to Raw
According to Relix Magazine editor Josh Baron in an interview with WFUV‘s DJ Claudia Marshall, each of the three songwriters in Monsters of Folk contributed five songs to the album, except for the opening track, “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.).”
Perhaps because of this, the CD covers a very large range of sound, from the atomospheric, reverb-heavy Yim Yames songs, to Americana ballads left over from Conor Oberst’s last album with the Mystic Valley Band, to M Ward’s bluesy folk. The album drips with 70s’ AM groove, and is so spacious at times that the listener gets lost in the vast negative space.
This CD manages to evoke many different emotions from the listener. It manages to be intense and laid back, earthy and ethereal, woeful and sweet. However, the CD lacks a unified core, probably due to the songs coming from three disparate artists such as Ward, Oberst, and James.
The highlights of Monsters of Folk are the songs “Dear God,” The retro rocker “Whole Lotta Losin,” Rockabilly meets reverb on “Baby Boomer,” and the closing track “His Master’s Voice,” which is so eerie that it is bound to haunt this author’s dreams forever.
Monsters of Folk = Traveling Wilburys?
Monsters of Folk is the latest in a long line of Supergroups. Going back to Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger in the Almanac Singers, the glittery trail of Supergroups runs through Eric Clapton in Cream and Blind Faith, The Traveling Wilburys, with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne, and the rock band Velvet Revolver, the remnants of Guns N Roses and Stone Temple Pilots.
In recent history, Matthew Sweet, Shawn Mullins, and Pete Droge came together to form Thorns, the last Supergroup in Folk before Monsters of Folk. But Monsters of Folk is most likely to be hyped as the next Traveling Wilburys.
It will be hard for Oberst, James, Ward, and Mogis to match the brilliance of the Traveling Wilburys. Although their CD is good, there are no songs on it to match “Handle With Care,” “End of the Line” or “Tweeter and the Monkey Man.” It would be more fair to compare Monsters of Folk to themselves, and accept them for what they are, rather than what one expects them to be.
Grade for Monsters of Folk: B-
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