Here are some soothing words
I'll be honest: I've been putting this one off. Not because I don't like it, but because I don't know what to do with it yet. Mouthful of Bees' record The End is my favorite Minneapolis album to be released in the five years I've lived here. It's full of concise pop hooks and relentless energy, fuzzy distortion and thundering drums. Mouthful of Bees' new self-titled record has none of these things.
Mouthful of Bees - Please and Thank You.
Instead, it's an album you have to listen to from beginning to end, a series of abstractions and unusual time signatures. For this, I salute them: they could have done more of the same, and everyone would have eaten it up immediately. Instead they chose to do something more interesting. I haven't had time to sit down with the whole record yet, but once things calm down for me (more on that later), it will be done.
Am I damning this record with faint praise? It probably seems like it. Yet I like "Please and Thank You" - I wouldn't have posted it if I didn't - and I'm glad these guys are still around. I can't wait to delve more into this album, and give it the attention it deserves. In the meantime, check it out for yourself by picking it up from Afternoon Records.