Cassette Review: No Monster Club "I Feel Magic" (Already Dead Tapes & Records)

[$5 // Edition of 100 // https://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/album/ad190-no-monster-club-i-feel-magic]

As much as I listen to "I Feel Magic" I can hear something which sounds rather familiar to me, but as this is the third different cassette I've heard from No Monster Club perhaps it is just that NMC has its own voice here.    From what could be considered twee, these songs are mostly upbeat and acoustic sounding with lyrics about subjects which aren't always sung about and I do enjoy that.

Perhaps a cross between the psychedelic swirl of Flaming Lips and the overall melody of They Might Be Giants (Which also implies No Monster Club could release albums geared towards children) could best describe these songs which are catchy as hell, but I don't think even that quite does it justice.     The songs can discuss any number of topics from Good Will (though not named outright) store finds to that damn Billy who contorted the trees.   You know, for a lot of artists "Billy Contorted the Trees" would only be a song title but for No Monster Club it does make for a great sing-along chorus.

But I feel like that's the best way to think about No Monster Club though: you never quite know what to expect and the rules which seem to apply to other bands do not apply here.     There was a time- but I don't know when- that music felt more indie pop rock in general to me.   I remember listening to Volcano, I'm Still Excited!! and just feeling like that was my life and all the other bands I listened to sounded like them and now No Monster Club reminds me of those days.

Overall if you've ever had a friend or someone who you took music advice from (Maybe me?) and they were all about these certain bands where they would say, "Yeah, the new such and such album is out and it's so rad" and then you'd go listen to it and be like, "What? This is so bland and boring", I guess that those expectations I had for what I thought was going to blow me away musically is what No Monster Club delivers here on "I Feel Magic".  I could think of about ten different people who would recommend to me a new rock album and I would hope it would sound this excellent.