Those Things hits and misses on Songs About Monsters

Songs About Monsters (Independent)

Those Things are at their best on Songs About Monsters when accepting that sometimes there’s nothing wrong with accepting one’s limitations. Coming on like a B-side pulled from the final resting place of Be Your Own Pet, the dum-dum rawker “Monster Island” works partly because of the swirling synths and pep-rally chorus, and partly because of the clever revelation that Monster Island is just off the coast of Thailand. The mid-tempo—and completely excellent—“Amy on a Good Day” actually gets you caring about the red-haired, green-eyed character in question, and not just because she goes wherever the hell she pleases, even when not invited.

The trouble starts when singer Carly doesn’t quite manage to hit the notes she’s aiming for on tracks like “Inhuman Monster” and “Victims of the Silver Screen”. Still, that’s largely forgotten by the time the band unleashes its inner boogie kings for “Rage Puke”. And when the singer spits “There’s something fucking wrong with me” in “Another Something’s Wrong Song”, there’s enough venom in her delivery to get you thinking that, even though Those Things isn’t totally there yet, the band might arrive sooner rather than later. If, that is, it will only buy into the idea that there’s nothing wrong with following the lead of L7 and accepting that some folks are best when snarling rather than singing.

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