Published on Jun 30, 2000
I’m a sucker for hooks. I’ll take The Beatles, Elvis Costello,
XTC , Crowded House, Squeeze, etc. over most anything on any given
day. I have a special place in my heart for Power Pop, Paisley Rock
or what you want to call music that gets me marvelously caught up
in it hooks. That’s why the Mommyheads’ album
The Mommyheads has been spinning on my disc player for the
past 2 days. And it’s been out for three years! How did I miss
this one?
Oh yes, this is one joyous hookfest! And I am completely taken
by the splendid melodies of these deftly crafted songs. Principle
songwriter and lead vocalist Adam Cohen has a voice that evokes
warmth, bliss and melancholy, sometimes simultaneously. This is
perfect for songs like “Jaded”, the stirring ballad that opens up
the album. This is a song of resignation: “I’m not jaded / I’m just
sleeping with my eyes open.” But the song leaves a little glimmer
of hope like the sequel ending to a movie. In the second cut “I’m
In Awe,” indifference is replaced with admiration for a lover.
And that is what is so rich about this album. Each song seems to
be invariably tied to the other. We move along with our protagonist
as life plays off him and he flows with it, never against it,
submitting to his circumstances but not defeated by them. In “Sad
Girl” he goes to a party and finds a noble calling: “I came here
with no one / And no one to find / Sad girl in the corner / Has
changed my mind.”
Every once in awhile we are startled by the profound wisdom in a
chorus or a verse. In “Screwed” Cohen sings: “You don’t need to be
right or wrong / To have a point of view.” The catchy “You Keep On
Looking Back” is an advisory that living in the past or trying to
regain past glory is futile, but this admonishment is more tangible
with the lines: “And I don’t care / If you dye your hair and change
your name / Because when you wake up in the morning / You will
still be the same.”
I do have to say that I found the song “Monkey” to lack some of
the shine, lyrically, that the other songs radiated.
Lest I start to intimate that this is a one-man band, let me
clarify that Cohen’s band mates are superior musicians: Dan
Fisherman on drums, Jeff Palmer on bass and Mike Holt on keyboards.
Together with Cohen on guitar, they make a rich and textured
backdrop to the vocals. And their pipes aren’t bad either! Check
out the soaring Beatlesque bit added at the end of “Bellhop.”
There are a lot of influences oozing off of this album. You can
hear the Squeeze, the Split Enz, the XTC and oodles of Lennon &
McCartney. But these influences are cloaked in the Mommyheads’
particular sound and are simply nods to others who have traveled
the melodic pop path before them.
So, if
you are a sucker for a hook, or just like to wrap your mind
around some intelligent and well crafted pop music, may I suggest
that you look for the Mommyheads.