Timothy Monger – Amber Lantern
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| Timothy Monger - Amber Lantern |
Release Date: Out Now
So, here’s a thing. I started
this blog to write about music just under six years ago now. I need a name for
it so I thought I’d use my surname to help people understand how to pronounce
it properly (it’s Monger like hunger - not longer or sponger, capiche?). I did
not expect to meet any other Mongers, let alone another music journalist and
certainly not one who has created a genuinely warm, charming and enchanting
album such as this. Ladies and gentlemen, please let me introduce Ann Arbor’s
very own, Timothy Monger (no relation).
Anyway, on with the music. The
album, ‘Amber Lantern’ (strong title, great start), opens with ‘Plough King’
and immediately you’re arrested by a dramatic, almost 80s New Romantic beat
mixed with Rooney-esque vocals and melodies and the line “I could be the plough
king, cutting through the hard things, I should be the plough king, making new
roads”. Throw in a violin and a steadier rhythm and you’ve got yourself the
kind of album opener that makes you sit up and pay attention. ‘Power Trio’ has
a Weezer meets Redd Kross vibe in the sunny guitars and rich vocal harmonies
singing “I’m tired of feeling shitty all the time” with all the charm of the
Beach Boys. On track four, ‘Everything’, Monger has created something that
sounds blissfully at peace with the world in the way Grandaddy or Midlake
always managed so seemingly effortlessly – he even manages to make the line
“everything has pain” sound comforting.
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| Timothy Monger |
The wonderfully named ‘Requiem
for a Ramp’ is a slow ripple and amble through an end of summer lament that
grabs hold of a drum beat half way through to become an indie power ballad of hugely
uplifting, hairs-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck proportions. ‘Hayward’, meanwhile,
settles in to a lazy Lemonheads meets Lennon mood making the most out of each
syllable of the lyrics and each steady guitar note on offer. ‘Let Night
Surround You’ might only be a minute long but the a capella medieval harmonies
are soothing and cheering ahead of the two-minute follow up ‘Sleepless’ which
takes the same melody on to the guitar and brings the lyrics bang up to date.
As the album approaches its
denouement, Monger hits us with ‘Outside the Venue’, a sad lament based around
the feeling of returning to the real world outside of the gig environment and
it’s a perfectly observed piece of song writing that will chime with anyone
involved in the music industry on a part-time or voluntary basis. It’s almost
too close to home. ‘Amber Lantern Theme’ has a melody that sounds like a slowed
down Super Mario menu theme but is soon embellished to grow in to some darkwave
piece of alt-synth-pop purpose made for some futuristic dystopian short film
(probably by Charlie Brooker, let’s face it). The album closes out with ‘Grey’s
End’ and it’s a triumphant piece of indie-pop with a Belle & Sebastian
heart and the same kind of tender yet confident approach to song writing that
Robert Schwartzman uses to great effect within Rooney.
This is a genuinely enjoyable,
engaging, surprising and thought-provoking album which would be impressive
enough for a band but to come from the heart and mind of one man is, well, it’s
impressive. Then again, he is a Monger….
More information: https://www.facebook.com/timothymonger/
Live Dates:
12th May – Flying Otter Vineyard & Winery,
Adrian
13th May – Old Town Tavern, Ann Arbor
27th May – CabinFest, Earlysville
9th June – Black Fire Winery, Tecumseh
21st-24th June – Above the Bridge
Songwriters Weekend, Curtis
28th September – Black Fine Winery, Tecumseh
20th October – Flying Otter Vineyard &
Winery, Adrian
3rd November – Cotton Brewing Co., Adrian