Mild Monk - ​Love

Mild Monk

​Love 
self-released; 2017

3.8 out of 5

By Jay Freeman

The words experimental and creative are often overused when describing a piece of art or music or even poetry. Ok, so how about quirky? Ethereal? Or how about just taking a few styles, like indie and alternative, mix them with electronic sounds, blurbs and (fill in the blank here) and you may come up with something called Love the debut album from Connecticut artist Mild Monk. Written and produced entirely on Garageband using an iPhone 6S, this record I sense, has that ‘something’ that if you listen to it days or weeks later, you’ll probably end up hearing something new or that ‘new’ thing in a different way.

To start off, the aptly titled “Intro” has a sparse techno beat and retro feel with a nice warm voice by bandleader Henry Stein. Love is largely a solo project started by Stein but within the last few months a band has formed to play live shows. A video has been filmed as well for the song “Once Again” and it is quite imaginative, so check it out if you can. The next number “Sweet Perfume” has a slow, dragging beat that adds to the lyrical theme of the song, which I presume is about those first feelings of euphoria when first falling in love and the perfume of the person you admire still lingers on your clothes.

“Summer Song” features a bright and warm guitar like the summer’s sun, a galloping beat (with additional drums by Kyle Sullivan) and later, a heavy warm guitar solo. This tune reminded me of a ‘70s soft rock, one-hit wonder that had this insane xylophone solo, yes, I’m not kidding, but I don’t recall the artist or band. Burpy or blurping sounds can be heard on “Once Again” accompanied with a tingling keyboard and a guitar that has a sort of reggae style to it.

All the sounds come together like an ‘80s retro video game, so I thought that was a cool thing to pull off. “Her Loving” has a strange, sensual feel to it but not a creepy strange in my view. Reverberating guitar with an old school hip-hop beat of sorts matches with an ode to a girlfriend. The song stops abruptly as if you just shut the turntable off before a song ends.

“Musical Love” features a lovely melody that works well with the beat, guitar sounds that are like a muted jazz guitar, strange gurgling sounds and whistling. Of all the songs on Love, I think this one was the most musically well written. The drum kit selection on “Wolves” sounds like a traditional trap set which Sullivan played on. There was also what sounded like an alto sax being played or something that sounds like an alto sax. A heavily distorted guitar adds a unique dimension to this tune as well.

​“Gotta Get off My Phone” has a lounge, shuffle beat and a muddy-hazy guitar effect – sort of like what my head feels like after being on my phone for far too long – muddy and in a cloud. The song I liked a lot was “Today” a dreamy rhythm with sleepy vocals and a warbled sounding guitar. The last tune “Rain” features up front vocals with one of those ‘voice changer things,’ a ukulele, flute, sounds of rain dropping, a glass bottle being filled and what sounds like the flicking of a cigarette lighter. So yeah, there are lots of things going on in this one. Overall, Stein’s Love has several love-centered themes and musically it’s pretty mellow and mild

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