shadowtiembi's Full Review: Girls Are the New Boys by Monty Love
From Staten Island, the land that gave us the world's largest garbage dump and...well...I'm sure there are some other things, comes a new angry punk trio by the name of Monty Love. Their first CD, "Girls Are the New Boys," throws 25 tracks of screaming, messy fun our way.
Twenty five tracks may seem rather abundant, considering the norm is closer to fourteen, but truth be told, it takes roughly thirty five minutes or so to get through the CD. Two tracks are mere seconds long, while most of the others are lucky to break the two-minute mark. A case of quantity over quality?
That depends on your taste in music. While Monty Love will not amaze you with deep lyrics and a wide vocal range, their songs are fast-paced, catchy, and give you the urge to throw yourself violently into one of your friends. Gravelly screaming replaces melodic singing in most cases, but somehow, it works. As far as being "catchy," I found myself singing along to several tracks I had previously never heard before, without knowing the lyrics. The songs suck you in, and fast, driving you to impulsively bob your head and mouth some gibberish along with the beat.
Speaking of gibberish, the CD insert includes the lyrics to all the Monty Love songs, and with good reason -- it's hard to understand half the words they're saying. Or screaming. Even after knowing the words, it's better to simply shrug them off, and keep rocking along with whatever you deem suitable. The lyrics, with a few exceptions, are simplistic -- nothing deep or insightful. They seem present just to keep Monty Love from being an instrumental punk band. It's the music that keeps this CD going, not the words. Pay special attention to the drumming throughout -- punk thrives on speedy, dexterous percussion, and this band does not disappoint.
Overall, not a bad attempt for this Staten Island band's first CD release. The band included six "bonus tracks" at the end of the CD, which pushes this collection of songs from average to above-average. The last six are some of the best on the album, especially "We're Feelin This," and "It's Not Us, It's The U.S." Also included among the twenty five tracks are two cover songs. One of them is Bikini Kill's (yeah, I've never heard of them either) "Rebel Grrrl." The other? Let's just say, I have never heard a better cover of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."
For $10, Monty Love's "Girls Are The New Boys" is a good buy, if loud, head-bopping, mosh-inducing punk rock is your cup of tea. Or if you just like the idea that something cool actually came out of Staten Island.
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