Life is full of surprises. The most pleasant ones generally
\nreach out and grab you when you are least expecting it. In the case
\nof Mensen’s latest release,
\nOslo City<\/i>, I was expecting little after enduring the
\nforceful experience of trying to make myself like their much-hyped
\ndebut album from 2001,
\nDelusions of Grandeur<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The referenced hype stems largely from the liaison of Mensen’s
\nvocalist and rhythm guitarist, Mary Currie, to the grand pooh-bah
\nof the whole Scandi-rawk movement in Nicke Andersson of
\nHellacopters\/Stockholm, Sweden fame. Tie this in with the fact that
\nMensen are from the current dirty rawk n’ roll hotbed of Oslo,
\nNorway, and it’s easy to see where their pedigree should be viewed
\nas honorable.<\/p>\n
\nOslo City<\/i> is an album that pays as much of a visual homage
\nto the band’s roots as Currie’s stage name salutes Cherrie Curie of
\nRunaways fame and lead guitarist’s Christine Sixteen’s handle pays
\ntribute to KISS. It’s also an album that features tighter guitar
\nhooks and frankly, better songs than their first effort. What
\nremains though is a swift charge of punk-inspired brilliance with
\ndefinite Runaways and KISS influences.<\/p>\n
“Keep Up” is the perfect opener for
\nOslo City<\/i>. The guitar loops on the track inspire images of
\nsound being amped through turbo-charged dragster engines. Mixed
\ninto this combustion chamber is the input of Currie’s anthemic
\nvocals. If inputs are expected to derive outputs, the results are
\nabundantly clear. “Keep Up” is a wild and pulsating ride.<\/p>\n
Creating such an energetic mold early on bodes well for
\nOslo City<\/i>. As I said earlier, it’s as much the hooks as
\nanything that make this album worthwhile. As the album progresses
\nthrough the tracks “One Minute Away,” “Move Over” and “Start Over
\nAgain” I find myself drawn to the lo-fi recording of Currie’s
\nvocals. It’s almost as if she’s singing in the room next door,
\nwhich allows for her to hide the underlying pop tendencies the
\nsongs would surely suggest otherwise. Furthermore, when you mix in
\nthe cagey fretwork of Christine Sixteen and bassist Rambling Roy,
\nthe tracks culminate with an undeniable “garage” rock edge to
\nthem.<\/p>\n
\nOslo City<\/i> takes an interesting turn when “Bosnia” is
\nperformed, as bells and tambourines replace the guitar amplifier
\nstacks. Currie’s seductive vocals mesmerize, the song portraying a
\npoignant lullaby when matched up to the energetic sing-alongs she
\nand her bandmates have hit us with by this point. “Bosnia” is an
\nadded dynamic to this album that shows Mensen have begun maturing
\nas a unit in the studio.<\/p>\n
Speaking of the dynamics found on Oslo City, the liner notes
\ninterestingly list Andersson and Danny Young of Gluecifer as
\ncontributing percussion work to the recordings. Not that the band’s
\ndrummer, Power Plingis, disappoints from what I gather to be her
\nparticipation on all the tracks; it just has me wondering what
\ncreative input may have been shared by such noteworthy guests. And,
\ninterestingly, the introductory guitar licks on “Sandy Starlight”
\nand “The Hard Way” inspire recent memory of the sound from any of
\nthe tracks found on the recent Hellacopters
\nBy the Grace of God<\/i> release. Things that make you go
\nhmmm\u2026.<\/p>\n
Whatever the case may be, Mensen is definitely on to something
\nwith
\nOslo City<\/i>. Whether it’s with their solicitation of outside
\ncollaborative efforts or merely with the basic evolution of the
\ngroup as a unit, the band has put out a release where every track
\nis catchy in its own way.<\/p>\n
My surprise occurred a month ago during the dog days of summer
\nand nearly a year after
\nOslo City<\/i> was released. While always grateful for exposure
\nto such good fortune, I can assure myself that I will anticipate
\nthe band’s future works with greater zest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":26470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6910],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37706","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mensen","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37706"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37706"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}