He-Monster - Good Intentions

​He-Monster

Good Intentions
self-released; 2016

4.0 out of 5

By Matt Jensen
​

Sock puppets scare the hell out of me. I think other people feel that way. Either way the cover art for the great album Good Intentions by He-Monster gave me the willies. Luckily, the music didn’t scare me. I thoroughly enjoyed this pop/rock EP which does a lot of things right. 

For all of you out there doing DIY recordings I think that the process in which they created this EP is a model to follow. They recorded the songs themselves but had some decent gear like Neve pre amps. After mixing they handed the album over to get professionally mastered. The proof is in the pudding; I thought the album sounded great in terms of production and aesthetics. Not over produced and not too lo-fi.

Musically, the songs are catchy rock tunes with some top notch songwriting. The band can certainly rock out. I also wouldn’t directly compare this band to Queens of the Stone Age but the lead singer Morgan Jones can sound like Josh Homme to my ears a number of times.

The album starts off with a rocking number “Lovely.” It’s a pretty intense song with a huge amount of energy. Jones kills it in the vocal department and so does everybody else. The band wisely mellows out after the title track. There is a little funk on the song. Jones delivers a very different energy and just nails the vocals. The song does eventually rock out pretty hard.

The band continues to impress with “Swimming After Bed” and “Pale Criminal.” They close with “The Valley” which has an early grunge Soundgarden vibe to my ears.

​Good Intentions is really just an EP that needs to be listened to to be fully appreciated. They aren’t doing crazy production tricks or fusing it with dub-step. The band is playing pretty straightforward rock. That being said it's all about the other aspects that make it work. The emotion, the energy and the heart.

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