Meligrove Band
Bones of Things
Reviewed by: Brian Roser
This album starts out with an eccentric, mostly musical lesson on how to count in Japanese. The second track features feel good music and the lyrics: “And no one’s making it out alive still we’re walking and we’re running and we’re telling all our lovers goodbye.” Which is not unambiguously happy. All of the vocals sound distorted, like they’re coming from underwater. This works for a song called “Tortuga”, but wears a little thin after a while. I understand they they’re trying for a unique sound, but it feels more like a gimmick than anything else. Also, on the track “The Bones of Things” the chorus repeats eight times, which is about six times too many.
Meligrove Band is a Canadian group out of Toronto. The members are as follows: Jason Nunes on vocals, guitar and piano, Darcy Rego on vocals and drums, Brian O’Reilly on guitar and synthesizer, and Michael Small on bass guitar, although I could swear someone brought in a ukulele in at some point. Also the song “Woof” does feature a dog. They’ve been together for about sixteen years and this is album number five for them. Their song “Bones Attack!!” is used as the theme song for The Basketball Jones podcast.
The lyrics are poetic, but the delivery is annoying. The music is competent, but also uninspired. Honestly, the album isn’t bad; it’s just lacking in anything to recommend it. If music is a body of work, Bones of Things is somewhere in the middle.
Rating: Semi-Obnoxious
