Monkey Brain is a guitar tour de force, a gritty
mash of the history of roots guitar music torn
down and built back up again. The title track is
a grimy ode to our inner, more base impulses:
“When life gets to me. My head starts to
change. I give in to my Monkey Brain”. On
the swampy Charity Case, Sean pleads with
his lover: “Why do you treat me like some
charity case? It’s not your business if I’m sober
or straight”... we’ve all been there. Hard Luck
is a 21st-century gospel dirge that has Sean’s
searing lead guitar crescendo with a one-note
Neil Young-style squeal into it’s signature
riff with layered gospel harmonies pleading
wordlessly over deep piano drones. Living
In The Past eases us in with Sean’s falsetto
before the album’s engine room Adam Warner
(drums) & Mark McIntyre (bass) launch into
its signature groove. Sean’s guitar weaves in
and out and Emma-Lee’s backing vocals push
the whole thing over the top. The album takes
a turn with Goin’ Hobo’s junk-yard percussion
and tongue-in-cheek lyrics about being sick of
the grind and packing it all in for the hobo life
co-written with Juno winner Steve Strongman.
The album closes with the duo of Monsters, an
acoustic stomper keeping with the theme of
fighting one’s own demons and Get Burned, yet
more evidence of Sean’s guitar prowess, pivoting
effortlessly between clean sinewy playing
and ultra-dirty riff-mongering.
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