There is an old saying that goes you can’t judge a book by its cover. The cover of “Goodbye Cruel World” features a baby holding a bottle of Uncle Jack’s world renowned bedtime beverage. Would there be similar decadence and lapses of good taste to be found in the songs contained therein?
Well, not really as the Melloncollies stay pretty close to what you would expect of an indie rock American style band these days. Sonically, they have gone for the Weezer goes garage rock approach with grungy guitar riffs punctuating much of the proceedings. Vocalist and master songwriter Simon Erani knocks out the words on love not really working out in eleven different ways but, in the end, the song remains the same. Having said that, there were moments – such as in “Criminal Girl” and in the riff appropriating “Money Money Money” – where our Mr Erani looks a bit further than his own feet and almost sounds like he might have enjoyed getting his heart broken.
The band, as a unit, do a decent job here in the time honoured New York basement way and, just in case you need something else to stretch out your evening after listening to this album, there is also a variation of the pin the tail on the donkey game to be found on the CD insert. The rules seem to involve drinking a lot however.
A final word: strippers. Or perhaps the modern equivalent of lap dancers. That will be Mr Erani’s task for the Melloncollies next album. Go write some songs about strippers and lap dancers. Better broke than broken hearted. That’s another old saying, by the way.