Monsters of Folk were spawned in post-show jams between Bright Eyes,
My Morning Jacket and M. Ward in 2004. Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and
Mike Mogis, Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and Matt Ward started working
on material then, but it’s taken them five years to translate the
structured backstage jams into a studio experience. They assembled
early last year with bare ideas for songs and plans to lay down demos,
hammered the material into shape and emerged with their self-titled
debut nearly completed.
They may be Monsters of Folk, but they’ve clearly colored outside
genre lines. “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)” features a Marvin
Gaye-meets-Moby ambient-soul texture. It’s followed by the Jeff
Lynne-flavored “Say Please,” the Wilbury/Beatlesque pop/rock of “Whole
Lotta Losin’,” the Everly Brothers twang-pop of “Magic Marker” and the
reverb shimmer of “Temazcal.” The Monsters don’t skimp on the folk,
though — from the George Harrison country romp “The Right Place”
to the Wilco-at-a-bluegrass-festival protest song “Man Named Truth” and
the ambient gospel of “Goodway.” Considering the band’s spontaneously
collaborative approach to writing, the album is understandably diverse
and unexpectedly cohesive. — Brian Baker
This article appears in Sep 23-29, 2009.
