The Mommyheads - Genius Killer

 

As you can imagine, I listen to a lot of music. Not as much as old as I would like due to how intensive the new remit of IDHAS has become. I try to give everything that I like a fair crack, but there are two bands that have hit the spot over the six years of I Don't Hear A Single and both have been with me much longer.

These two are Ex Norwegian and The Mommyheads. Both are different to each other, but their common bond is that over long careers, their albums over the I Don't Hear A Single period have grown their reputation and stand as great as anything they've ever released.

Throughout their career, both have evolved and remained interesting. Each album has offered something different without ever losing their pop sensibilities. It is to be admired that they never falter to make albums for themselves that they know will hit the spot because of the quality on display.

So to The Mommyheads. I have had the latest album, Genius Killer, for a while. I've been itching to tell you about it, but I always prefer to do that when I can embed three or four songs. At the moment only Idealist has been made available to the general public, but I see quality writers of the Likes of Bill Kopp reviewing it, thankfully so. The album is released on 20 September.

So I wanted to give people a heads up and then do the review when the songs are available, In the meantime you can go to the band's Bandcamp site here as a lot of the back catalogue is at Name Your Price.

The Mommyheads have a unique ability to enter multiple genres without ever losing sight of the song. At times they can appear to be Queen or XTC, at others be a cross between Adrian Belew or a more focussed King Crimson and  a less wanky Radiohead, think of The Bends era.

Intelligent lyrics abound accompanying unusual chord structures and surprise departures. A song is only as long as it needs to be, if the odd one is six minutes, it is because it needs that time. Genius Killer is outstandingly original, yet reassuringly familiar.

I've posted the You Tube video to Idealist here, but the two killer songs are Privilege and the title track. Privilege is wonderfully Elephant Talk era King Crimson with many more lyrics. It is everything that the band do so well in three and a half minutes.

Genius Killer is a magnificent song, both instrumentally and lyrically. It sums up exactly how I feel about both the UK and the States at the moment. So good that it is the only song to appear on the IDHAS 10 Song Mix twice. I can't wait to telly you more about the complete album. In the meantime dig into that back catalogue. 

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