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Back when The Mobius Band was in the Valley (the trio has since moved to Brooklyn), they were one of my personal favorites. What wasn’t to like about soundscape-based song construction with pop elements, but arranged with an ear for how an idea can move to unknown, somehow related territory over 4 or 6 minutes? Their songs tended to be more a musical voyage than an exercise in repetition of hooks.
Maybe I’ve been unduly influenced by my own move from the original rock world to being a half-arsed Gypsy jazz player, but 99% of radio pop bores me beyond reason. There are good pop songs, but there are few pop songs with something of real emotion and interest to offer, and even fewer of those on the radio right now. Several hundred exceptions may easily be found, but my point is that the kind of musical prowess and beyond-the-usual thinking Mobius Band employs are rare commodities in pop.
This album is, nonetheless, more of a pop effort than I expected from Mobius. There are still plenty of noisy, hypnotic passages, but they seem more in service of pop concerns this time. There are even handclaps, for pete’s sake. They’ve got their usual soundscapes, insistent rhythms and moving of songs into unexpected territory. But it’s undercut by some of the things that make most pop boring–unmemorable, even near-goofy bass lines, repetition without development, vocal melodies that float above the instruments without being compelling or memorable. There’s even one song that sounds more like a bad 80s radio hit than I thought these guys capable of ("Friends Like These").
This is a good indie pop album, and I’d rank it fairly highly in that context. But in the context of what Mobius has accomplished before, this one’s not got the cojones of past efforts–they have, perhaps traded some of their Radiohead for a little more Depeche Mode.
Worst track: "Friends Like These"
Best track: "Control"
–James Heflin
