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Change
When Spaceships Collide
Mental Monkey
When Spaceships Collide plays like a fantastic performance art piece. With the dramatic (sometimes howling, sometimes whiny, sometimes belligerent) vocals of Aaron McEvoy, Change!, has hit something special. This is not an album for everyone; there’s a lot of emphasis on the dulcimer, highlighted with sparse drum fills and even sparser bass lines. The opening track, “This Year We’ll Fly,” perfectly captures this essence. There are no awkward silences or overly ambitious tunes here. When McEvoy does whine, as in “My Sadness Is A Special Thing” and howls, as in “Le Sad Cassetto,” he’s in good company with the strong backbeat and Britpop rhythm. The psychedelic rock opera theme carries this album along, but sadly the songs themselves have barely a foot to stand on, independent of the concept. Tracks like “My Lover’s Lily Pad” and “Dinosaur Egg” drag on way too long and have no soul. I always appreciate the printed inclusion of lyrics, and inexplicably we get that on the inside CD cover for only 5 of the 11 songs. McEvoy reminds me of the pied piper, skipping along devilishly, inviting mischief, and its no easy feat to harness this imagery, but he would have done better to simplify the recording even further, to showcase his charm instead of overshadowing it with a cacophony of instruments.
--Vanessa Arce
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