My Amazon Reviews: Monsters of Folk "Debut"

Monsters Folk The World,

4 Out of 5 Stars

In one of the more unlikely combos since Tinted Windows came out this year, Jim James (or as he has taken to calling himself, Yim Yames) of My Morning Jacket, blues/folkie M Ward and Dylanesque folk-monger Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes have teamed up to mingle their overlapping tastes for this album. Add producer and Bright Eyes multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis, and you get a thoroughly enjoyable folk album that draws on each members' individual bests.

I got to see the Monsters on tour at Philadelphia's Academy of Music and was astonished at just how well these guys blended together. Oberst is probably the closest thing to an old-school folkie of the bunch, with Ward being more a blues singer and James adding a southern accent to MMJ's psychedelic pop-rock. When they unleash a traditional folk song like "Man Named Truth," they hit everything dead center. James brings in the Neil Young school of other-worldliness, used best on the closing "His Master's Voice" or the The Grateful Dead sound-alike "The Right Place." Ward leads on "Slow Down Jo" and the others add harmonies that hold up the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young comparisons that have been tossed at this album.

That kind of hype is a bit unfair to the band, as the Monsters don't seem to have an agenda like CSN did, and "The Travelling Folkberries" seems more apt. There's plenty of great moments here, like "Map Of The World," "Say Please" and the previously mentioned songs. But there's also the occasional trip-up, like the pretentious opener, "Dear God," or the tossed off sounding "Goodway." But again, when they hit the bulls-eye, this is some top-flight stuff. And I have to add, after seeing him playing live, Jim James is a real monster...on guitar. Even more so than the denseness of his MMJ albums reveals.