By Henry Lipput
It's 1976 in London and Adam Ant (yes, that Adam Ant) and Lester Square form a band called The B-sides. Soon, Andy Warren and a fellow called Bid join. But lead singer Adam quits, becoming a solo artist, leaving the chips to fall as they may. Out of this The Monochrome Set are born in 1978.
Fast forward to 2012. After many leave-takings by band members and a few band dis-bandings, The Monochrome Set reform and release the Platinum Coils album. And, this year, they've released their newest album, Cosmonaut, with Bid back at the helm.
The songs of The Monochrome Set have been described as "delivering mirth and melancholy, pleasure and panic, delight and dread, wrapped up in tuneful pop songs with curious lyrics."
And their new album, their 13th release, certainly lives up to all that. Once again, Bid brings us his trademark songwriting talents and crisp guitar stylings. His sounds and words are complemented by terrific keyboarding, great drumming, and some fine female backing vocals.
The title song is the story of a cashier who has had more than a few red pills that day and imagines that her register is the dashboard of a space ship. To the sounds of Dr. Who-ish sound effects (The drummer is wearing a fez in the video. Fezzes are cool.), we listen as "Lights on the console pulsate, spark, and melt / There are aliens sticking matter on the belt" and "From control there are offers on everything green." Bid has a great imagination and a wonderful sense of humor.
With music bordering on surf rock, Bid updates the legend of Sweeney Todd on "Suddenly, Last Autumn." A man is pushed into a bush of parsley and stuffed into a rough of puffy pastry. A female voice gives instructions: "Human flesh, gas mark 7, and it’s done. Tastes like heaven, a little gravy, yum yum!"
"Squirrel In A Hat" has a distinctly Middle Eastern feel to it. Asking to have modern values (and, by extension, troubles) like freedom, progress, and culture taken away from him, the fellow in the song decides he'd rather be a squirrel in a hat: "Squirrel in a hat I want to be / sleeping on a bough in a shady tree."
Bid plays some neat country and western guitar riffs as well as a lovely solo on "Kingfisher Blue," and the thumping drums and spooky organ turn "Monkey Suitcase" into a horror movie soundtrack. The lyrics for "Monkey" again highlight Bid's marvelous use of surreal imagery: "If I were poor / I'd make my trousers from the skins of exotic fruits / Dust from the floor / I'd knit into a sweater and have stale grapefruits."
One of the less psychedelic songs on the album is the beautiful "Tigress," a remembrance of a beloved pet. With a subtle mellotron backing, Bid tenderly sings of a "dainty friend" who is now in "a little box on the shelf."
Cosmonaut is now out on Tapete Records.
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