Some songs you just don’t mess with. The 23rd psalm, for example. Or “Ace of Spades.” You wouldn’t and I wouldn’t but Mona Mur would and it is this rather perverse cover that sets the tone for her new album “Snake Island”.
Mona Mur is a style icon. A long established style icon at that so, if anyone can, she can take a hard rock classic and make it into a manic feminist statement. It’s not even incongruous in the context of the whole album for this is an album neck deep in grinding, grungy guitar riffs and heavily industrial drums making this hybrid of brooding intent and reverb drenched reality into something that would be best described as emotionally relentless. Are you looking for a ballad? You won’t find one here.
In lesser hands, this full on approach would crush you but Mona Mur has more than a few tricks up her sleeve with her sense of the theatrical allowing her to take tight right hand turns and pull something distinctly unexpected out of her trick bag. The mawkish “Your Eyes” or the twisted “Tiny House” are examples of this.
Mona Mur clearly has no intention of resting on her laurels and “Snake Island” provides more than enough proof that her sense of style and her imagination are nowhere near exhaustion. She’s an original without a doubt. She’s one of a kind. She’s the ace of spades.
Best song: The weird “Tiny House.”
Verdict: Relentlessly compelling.