Monsters of Folk -Self-Titled

Wed 30th Sep, 2009 in Music Reviews

A quartet comprising Conor Oberst, M. Ward, Jim James of My Morning Jacket and producer Mike Mogis, Monsters of Folk invite easy comparisons with – œ70s supergroup The Travelling Wilburys.

While this project goes further towards realising the individual talents of its members than that icon-heavy grouping, it remains less than the sum of its considerable parts, an always pleasant listen that never quite goes beyond being a well-executed side project.

Initially uniting for a cross-country jaunt in 2004, the four worked on this record sporadically in rare moments of downtime. Despite the disjointed recording process, it hangs together well enough, settling into a contented soft-rock groove and adding elements of folk and country to add to its polished sound and accomplished harmonies. It’s a strong collection, if not a startling one. Many of the songs here could appear on a golden oldies station without frightening the horses.

Dear God gets proceedings off to a typically sincere start. The lushness here is a feature throughout the record, though it foregrounds beats more than is usual on an album that generally shoots for timelessness more than cutting-edge sonic invention.

Completely bereft or irony or detachment, Dear God also features each singer taking the reigns at one point, their styles complementary more often than conflicting, James’ pure falsetto sitting comfortably alongside Oberst’s emotive warble.

It’s not the last time on the record that Oberst supplies the rawest notes, the edge in an otherwise pretty mellifluous palette. He introduces a faint note of paranoia into Temazcal, which weaves around a skittering beat and the best qualified group of backing vocalists you’ll hear anywhere this year.

But order is restored in the cosy campfire sing-along of Good Way and the gentle Slow Down Jo, where some first-rate harmonising rubs up against slide guitar, elevating what could have been a lacklustre tune. As with the upbeat Say Please, this brings to mind George Harrison’s classic All Things Must Pass record, which James paid tribute to on his Yim Yames EP earlier this year.

If James proves the star of the record with his vocals pushing everything they touch into seriously soulful territory, then Mogis has his moments too. Best known for twiddling the knobs on records by Oberst and M.Ward, amongst others, his work here provides ample evidence that he is also a first-rate guitarist. His playing cuts through the record intermittently – fitting enough for an album of scattered highlights rather than sustained excellence.

Monsters Of Folk is out now through EMI.