Skip to main content

anything but typical

as a fan of music, i remember catching some of the hype surrounding an ep put out by this band from new orleans a few years ago. the band was called mutemath and the ep was called "reset." i bought it, and it surprised me because it wasn't what i expected, but i really liked it.

a few years later, i had heard that they had released their first full length cd, but that it was independent and you could only get it on their website. laziness won the day and i never ordered it. then, around christmas, i heard that a major label had picked it up and you could buy it other places. so i wisely added it to my christmas list.

i say wisely because my parents saw it on my list and bought it for me, even though the only
reason i can imagine that my dad picked this cd from the list of 40 is that it had the word
"math" in it. whatever the reason, i unwrapped it on christmas day, and i have been taken with it ever since.
now, i realize that any review of music is extremely subjective because it must allow for that thing
called "taste," for which there is no accounting, as they say. but i do believe there is a certain
objectivity, as well, as far as evaluating whether art is quality or not. this, my friends, is indeed

quality art. will you like it? i have no idea. but i know i sure do.

if i could describe the mutemath sound to you, i would have to say that it sounds like the police and radiohead merged into one and added some muscle. as soon as you hear paul meany's voice, you have to recognize the police connection: he sounds like a younger, fuller, slightly angrier and deeper sting. there are some quieter moments when i have to remind myself that it is NOT sting. the music reminds me of radiohead in that it is somewhat hard to categorize. sometimes it rocks. sometimes it meanders. there are many blips and beeps and interesting sounds that, in my opinion, don't distract, but serve the music well. it is a kind of musical collage, with all the noise serving the song.

i am tempted to go through song-by-song and isolate what i love about each track on this cd, from the lyrics on "stare at the sun" to the emotion of "stall out" to the incredible, absolutely incredible, drumming throughout. if you like drums or rhythm, i highly recommend this album.


instead, i will close with some lyrics from the song typical:
i know there's got to be another level
somewhere closer to the other side
and i'm feeling like its now or never
can i break the spell
of the typical?
well, in my humble opinion, mutemath, you have broken the spell the of the typical. this art you have made as christians, but mostly just as musicians and lyricists, is anything but typical. it is exceptional. thank you.


Comments

Crafty P said…
you should really do a weekly (if not more regular) music review.

some of my kids favorite cd's are ones that you have made for me.

thanks for the review... sting merged with radiohead sounds so amazingly intriguing to me.

I feel so out of the loop in music anymore and depend on fellow music lovers like yourself for enlightenment.

thank you.
Anonymous said…
seth and i have been listening to mutemath consistently for the past month! i love their new album - the musical interlude on track one is amazing and track two is my favorite, very catchy.

it's cool because a couple of my students this year are music heads and they have even heard of mutemath. they think it's really cool that i like mutemath and interpol.

i agree with christina, you should do more reviews, because i usually agree with your taste in music. you're right when you say that it's about your own taste, though, because mutemath isn't for everyone.
greg milinovich said…
glad you guys liked the review. this is seriously my favorite album of 2006. it rocks, but its also smart. i don't want them to get too popular, though. i kind of want them to remain the little secret that only some of us are cool enough to know about.

i've seen them live a couple of times. both times they were freaking incredible. they have unbelievable energy and charisma. can you say keytar? oh yeah...
Kerri Smith said…
hey Greg - ever listen to Sigur Ros? i've been devouring his stuff for the past few months and aiming to bring it on a Sunday morning sometime. it's all in Icelandic, but there seems (to me at least) to be something particularly annointed about it. could just be me, but it does something to my insides. start with the album () then go from there.

Popular posts from this blog

bad haircuts (for a laugh)

everybody needs to laugh.  one good way i have found to make that happen is to do a simple google image search for 'bad haircut.'  when you do so, some of the following gems show up.  thankfully, my 9th grade school picture does NOT show up.  otherwise, it would certianly make this list!  please laugh freely and without inhibition.  thank you and have a nice day. 

happiness is dry underwear

we started potty training jack on thursday. we followed a program called POTTY TRAIN IN ONE DAY, which, by the way, i think is kind of crazy. i mean, if someone were to offer you a book called, "ACHIEVE WORLD PEACE IN ONE DAY" i don't think you would take it seriously. and yet here we are, trying to accomplish an equally daunting task in one 24-hour period. it is intense. the day is shrouded in a lie because as soon as your happily diapered child wakes up you tell him that it is a big party. we had balloons and streamers and noisemakers and silly string - all the trappings of a legitimate party. but it is most certainly not a party. it is a hellishly exhausting day. as soon as jack got out of bed, we gave him a present: an anatomically correct doll that wets himself. jack named him quincy. several times quincy successfully peed in the potty and even had an accident or two in his "big boy underwear." he also dropped a deuce that looked and smelled sus

the crucifixion of Robert Lewis

  "the crucifixion of Robert Lewis" mixed media collage with leaves, acrylic paint, and found objects by gregory a milinovich october 2023 this october i was invited to participate in a three day trip which was called a "pilgrimage of pain and hope."  while that may not sound super exciting to many of you, it actually really intrigued me.  i am the kind of person that wants to feel big feelings, and i am drawn to the deep places, so  i was interested in traveling to the scranton area, where the trip was planned, to see what it might look like to be a pilgrim that was wide-eyed and listening to the pain and the hope in the stories of others.   this trip included hearing the stories of immigrants to the northeastern pennsylvania area, and the work in the coal mines that many of them did.  it included hearing from folks who are working for housing justice and equity in downtown scranton.  it included hearing from those indigenous people who first inhabited that land.