Monument To The Masses

A couple of years ago I picked up the debut album by Ima Robot. It was a throwback to the new wave era, full of herky-jerky rhythms and keyboards and punk riffs and lots of Devo-licious flavor. It got mostly average to bad reviews, but for some reason it worked for me - in fact it still does. The band then splintered and reformulated themselves, and last week they finally released their follow up, Monument To The Masses. If you liked the debut and can get past the admittedly awful Photoshop-py progfest that is the cover, you will find much to love. They pretty much pick up right where they left off, but things seem a bit more realized. The record kicks off with Disconnect. This is Ima Robot does PIL - the "hellos" at the beginning, the sneer of the vocals, and that glorious, anthemic chorus that makes has me reaching for the air guitar all make this a great opening salvo. I also dig Pouring Pain, and this is because of my current Prince fascination - there's more than a whiff of purple in the verse melody. The chorus is kind of a mish mash of Bowie, Faith No More and Adam Ant (that falsetto is pure Adam). Very tasty.