Moth - Provisions, Fiction, and Gear

Remember when Weezer was creative and entertaining to listen to and not completely forumalic? Well, I do and Moth's debut album Provisions, Fiction, and Gear reminds me of that. This Ohio-native band has created an album of quirky pop songs that are easy to sing along with on the first listen. The lead off single "I See Sound" will get your head bobbin with it's galloping drum beat, catchy chorus, random ska-esque, slightly soaring guitar at times, and fun lyrics. The same goes for the tracks "Thinkin Please", "Hearing Things", and "Burning Down My Sanity" - all songs with a strange bit of quirkiness but retaining that sing-a-long-ability. Luckily Moth isn't all about the fun pop songs with no substance, they've actually got a few songs floating around the album with a bit of emotion. And I don't mean "emo" or "so sad it makes you cry" kind of emotion, I just mean lyrics that weren't neccasarily written to make you point at your best friend across the room and sing along. "Last Night's Dream" and "Straight Line" are pretty similar in their subject matter, leaving town and telling noone where you've gone. My personal favorite track "Sleepy" deals with the denial of a crumbling relationship and the juxtaposition of the floaty verses intermixed with the snapping guitar breaks works perfectly. The low point of the album occurs on the track "Cocaine Star" where the lyrics take a real turn for the worse. Luckily, the pace is picked back up by the end of the album with "Not Really", an acoustic number that brings your heart rate down after all that silly dancing around and singing you've been doing with the rest of the record. So why the 3.25 in manstyle points? Because as entertaining as Moth's debut album is, it's one of those albums that I'll forget I own a year from now. The majority of songs are good, the performance is good, the production is up to par, but there doesn't seem to be anything so outstanding that I'll find myself burrowing through my CD stacks to relive the experience. However, as not to leave this review on a bad note, Moth's Provisions, Fiction, and Gear definetly holds more entertainment value than anything I've heard recently in mainstream rotation. [www.mothematics.com]