Album Review: Monuments and Statues - Fractals (2015)

Back in late 2013 I wrote about a single called 'Red Dress', which had been released earlier that year by Ontario-based folkers Monuments and Statues. The single was a belated follow-up to the band's Welcome to the Undertow EP, which was released as far back as 2010, and it came with the promise of a full-length album sometime in the future. Well, the future’s here, because a few weeks back the band’s debut album Fractals made its way into my ever-expanding inbox.

One of the reservations I had about Welcome to the Undertow at the time related to the music's lack of structure and form. 'Red Dress' itself came across as being rather ramshackle and almost random in parts. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, but it felt as though there was a little too much going on.

That most certainly isn't the case with Fractals, and clearly the good folk of Monuments and Statues have spent a lot of time getting things just right for the album. The nine tracks that make up the album appeal as beautifully crafted slices of folk-pop, and the whole thing just seems to gel.

The band's basic approach hasn't changed markedly; the music remains essentially acoustic in form - banjo, cello, piano, and a variety of string instrumentation underpinning some lovely girl/boy vocal harmonies. The song-writing is solid, production is crisp and full, and there is no obvious weak moment across the album.

Looking for highlights, no single track stands out over any of the others. ‘Red Dress’ features again, the 2014 single ‘Oh Great Rose’ is a worthy album opener, and I really love the sultry vocal and fullness of sound offered on ‘Galafax’, which gets a reprise near the end.

There’s a real sense of cohesion throughout Fractals. As debut albums go, it’s pretty impressive, and it wouldn't be at all surprising to see this release take the band to a whole new level - in terms of wider exposure and popularity. Fractals feels like a genuine step forward for Monuments and Statues.

Monuments and Statues Soundcloud page

Buy Fractals on iTunes

Monuments and Statues - 'Red Dress' and Welcome to The Undertow

Following on from a recent post celebrating (and lamenting) the sheer volume of “free” or “name your price” downloads out there, I recently came across a new single by a band called Monuments and Statues, which hails from Canada, or Kingston, Ontario, to be more specific.

The single is called ‘Red Dress’ and it first appeared on an EP called Welcome to The Undertow (which is also available for download) back in 2010. With the prospect of a full-length album on the horizon, ‘Red Dress’ has been re-released in 2013 in single format, and although it took a few listens to really get a handle on it, it’s been well worth persevering with.

‘Red Dress’ is also very representative of the rest of the material found on Welcome to The Undertow – the four-track EP. The band doesn’t really fit any traditional genre labels. The music is fairly ramshackle, it lacks structure, but it’s all the more intriguing just because of that. It feels like it deliberately avoids mainstream pop forms, with focus on instrumentation – cello and banjo to the fore – and strong vocal harmonies. There’s a strong acoustic presence and each track on the EP has a certain charm all of its own.

I think the “folk” label is about as close as I can get, but even at that, there’s classical elements at play, there’s a baroque feel to some of it, and hey, it’s also a little bit country ... have a listen for yourself, and if you like it, look out for the band’s album when it turns up sometime soon:

Download ‘Red Dress’ and Welcome to The Undertow from the Monuments and Statues Bandcamp page here.