Review Summary: omygodhowthefuckdoireviewthis?!
Equal parts rock and electronic, with small chunks of jazz, funk, dance, blues, ambient and easy listening... I'm sat perched in front of a desk not quite knowing what to think of all of this. It's not that NeveroddoreveN is particularly genre-bending, just that I Monster don't allow themselves to settle into one style; the songs are internally consistent, the album, however, jumps all over the place.
This is not to say that we should bring out the "compilation" stamp, there's a certain degree of consistency brought about by the oddly playful creepiness which permeates the record. Whether that be in the heavily distorted vocals in
Daydream in Blue (an effect recently made famous by "Chromeo", who I'm 80% sure copied it from I Monster) or the beaming lyrics of
"she's gonna kill you!" in
Backseat of my Car. At times this tone is more noticeable than others, but it's rarely the focus, rather it acts as a signature to assure the listener that they are, in fact, listening to I Monster, because there's no other discernible way of doing so otherwise.
Nothing is ever played straight in Neveroddoreven in that some songs are "just for fun" and the ones that at first appear serious end up having a more sinister, comical tone. Take
Heaven as an example, at first glance it's an overly-sexual ballad... on closer inspection it become apparent that it's addressed to a blow-up sex doll. Admittedly, the fact that I Monster aren't taking themselves too seriously is a relief, but it's also possibly the only way they could justify the general lack of cohesiveness.
At this point in the review I'm thinking of giving up and doing a track-by-track, certainly it would make more sense to you (oh look, a cunning use of second person to stop the reader being pissed off with this very humble reviewer, and in an apologetic tone too!) if I broke it down in such a structured manner... ah well f
uck it, just have a listen for yourself, it's a great album if only a little bit flat in a few places.
