IMMANENTIZE THE ESCHATON

Another interesting entry from this self described "Progressive Pop" band, and a quite enjoyable one at that. We start off here with the spacey "Ambien," which is a very tripped out, mellow tune with some fairly depressive lyrics. I think that this track foreshadows very well their later release "The Courier," which is filled with such songs. Anyway, "Ambien" definitely shows that the band is very comfortable with this kind of song, but nothing spectacular sticks out, it's a nice song but not much more.

The band follows up with "Solomon Grundy," which begins with a very punchy, poppy guitar riff and sticks to that for a while before switching into a slower section which is backed by a nice, soothing bass line. The song switches back and forth between these motifs before a third theme is introduced, which features some very nice spaced-out guitar. This is a very good song, but like a lot of MBO's early work it goes overlong. I think this song could have been about 6 minutes instead of 8 and not a good deal would have been lost; the ending section drags on for almost a full 2 minutes.

"Anjuna" gives the the impression of a relaxing tropical island. It's another psychedelic song, but with a bit more direction than "Ambien." Pink Floyd's "San Tropez" comes to mind, with just a hint of Beach Boys thrown in.

The EP's closer, "I'm Your Ringtone," is another harder edged song. There's quite a bit of distorted vocals and there's a singular guitar riff that repeats for most of the song. Quite honestly, this is probably my least favorite song on the album. It has a lot of the same problems that I think a lot of MBO's harder stuff has, which is that it uses a lot of really interesting elements but comes off sounding like less than the sum of its parts. It's simply not as interesting to listen to as their psychedelic spacey stuff, at least not yet. (Check out their later album, "The Anonymous Troll" for a more interesting and mature sounding listen).

Overall, "Immanentize the Eschaton" is a solid EP that accomplishes most of what it sets out to do, though the flaws it has in the overlong second track and weak closer feel like a bit of a step back from their previous EP, "Hidden Masters Under Dead Suns". However, like all of the band's work, it's free on their website, so if you have a fondness for the more alt-rock and pop-influenced sides of modern prog, I'd definitely recommend a listen.

3/5