The Monks - Suspended Animation
#469
October 1 1981
The Monks
Suspended Animation
Genre: New Wave
3.5 out of 5
Highlights:
Suspended Animation
Grown Ups
Opening with a quasi-reggae track only serves to make it seem like you want to be compared to The Police, guys. Which is a shame because that second track, the title one, comes across like a punk Boomtown via latter day Peter Gabriel or XTC. Now, I know this simile doesn’t work perfectly but I think that’s the sphere in which these guys want to live.
I wish they had opened with Suspended Animation, with it’s chilling, chilly vocals and hyper kinetic frenzy.
I enjoy their oddball sense of humor like “Don’t Bother Me, I’m a Christian” and “James Bondage”, both of which are a bit more like Oi versions of Adam Ant with more wit and lightheartedness. Like a bizarro Fingerprintz. I hear hints of The Damned as well. And then there’s a bit of Joe Jackson on “Cool way to Live”.
Side One is a hoot.
Let’s flip this over.
“Oxford Street” hits a hard left turn into street busking 60s Dylan territory before veering us back into familiar New Wave territory. And it gets a little racist with “I Can Do Anything You Like” but I get the times. However, when they move from impersonating Indian people to Jamaicans on “King Dong”, I kind of want to dock them some points and would be sort of happy for the record to end.
There are ex Strawbs in this band and this is more fun than anything I’ve heard from their former group.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/suspended-animation/304217857
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