Menomena: Friend and Foe

Label: Barsuk

Did anyone know who Menomena was one year ago? Oh, a few did for sure (I Am the Fun Blame Monster is really worth getting), but many do now. And for good reason: Friend and Foe, the band’s third full-length, was a major step up, a bold and baroque pop record. Harmoniously layered vocal lines swerve and swell through a long list of musical appearances, including a heavy dose of piano, the workman’s whistle, skronk saxophone, xylophone and a thunderous base-layer of crashing drums. And the artwork! No CD packaging was so elaborate this year – not even on Bjork’s record – with eight possible different covers, four when the CD is in the case, four when it’s not, and lots of nicities in between, depending on you put the CD. Yet another reason to own the record, not that really needed it.