The Size Queens, Is It In Yet?

by dave heaton

I was quite taken with Adam Klein and Michael Mullen's ability to tell a story in song, and their melodic sense, back when I reviewed their band Roman Evening's Tiny Ladies album in 2003. So with this CD, when I recognized Klein's voice and realized what I was listening to, it was an exciting moment. It's another creation of Klein, Mullen and others. The innuendo of the band name and album title makes this seem like more of a lark, and to a certain extent it is. The songs were written/recorded quickly, improvised much of the time, and there's definitely a level of humor here. Humor in service of protest, though, of pointing out the madness and pain in the world today. Here's how the album begins: "Good morning torturers / how does it feel? / did you torture the sun to come out and shine?"

The Size Queens often appear to be riffing on newspaper headlines from the last decade or four, from the Jon Benet Ramsey case and Iraq to the Weather Underground. Other times the songs are more a from-the-hip portrait of American society/people: fear, paranoia, laziness, capitalism. The music itself is quite lovely: contemplative and off-kilter, but also pretty. Sometimes it pops brightly, other times rides along in a mellow keyboards-driven direction. It's somewhat of an epic, but filled with lots of twists and turns: ideas, hooks and textures; wry social commentary and alluring pop music.

{www.bitterstag.com}