SCREENS

BARGAIN BIN CD BUY #2

These guys were my heroes when I was younger. I saw one of their songs on music TV when I was 13 and came my pants. I bought fabric paint and made a stupid little colourful Mint Chicks t-shirt that I wore until the colourful paint came off. The Mint Chicks played spastic punk and opened for every band that ever played because they were so good. They opened for The Blood Brothers and I thought they were better than The Blood Brothers. In 2006 they stopped playing spastic punk and became a pop band. They made a pop album about drug addiction and mental illness with little Ramones-y la-la-la choruses. They weren't my heroes any more but the whole country embraced their depressi-pop. They went away and became expatriates which is like the worst thing you can ever do in nz because everyone goes OH YOU'RE TOO BLOODY GOOD LALALALALA. Screens was released in that OH YOU'RE TOO BLOODY GOOD LALALALALA backlash and was ignored by the whole country. Even four years later with the success of UMO, nzers are like ah yes the mint chix *single tear due to reminiscence + feeling of extreme betrayal*

Screens is a semi-industrial (in the drums + melding of human voice w robot effect) synthpop album that sounds sad as fuck even when it's happy. It's like 808s for the indie pop/quasi-Beach Boys revival generation of the mid 000s. It's a swansong for the band and the era (they did something else but acknowledging that makes Screens less poignant). 3 of the tracks aren't that good but the rest kill poignantly. It's when everything heads in a single positive direction but sounds doomed that Screens works best.

Also just ps, UMO's II is still 2013's #1 for me

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v0 / lossless / buy