Serena Maneesh - Serena Maneesh

Genre rock Publisher PlayLouderecordings/Beggars Group External Links Official Serena Maneesh Website Official PlayLouderecordings Website Official Beggars Group Website

I've figured out three ways to describe Serena Maneesh's self-titled album. It's like tripping on bad acid. Or the soundtrack to the kind of dream you have after eating bad sushi. Or just a cluster-fu...well you get the idea. The first track hits the ground running. There's a great instrumental intro that builds and builds into unresolved anticipation. Almost a minute into the song comes lyrics (or what sounds like lyrics) and then it's just sensory overload and a sense of confusion and a sense of WTF??? overcomes the listener. Lather, rinse and repeat eleven times and bingo - that's the album in a nutshell. By the way, the acoustics sound like they were recorded in a bathroom.

Serena Maneesh is the brainchild of Emil Nikolaisen and his posse of musical bad-asses. He's got a guy on flute and marimba, a violinist, guitarist, bassist and a drummer, plus a trio of singers. Hey, hey the gang's all here, and with the musicians outnumbering the vocals, you get an instrumentally heavy album with a lot of interesting blending and layering of sound. "Simplicity" is two fleeting minutes of heaven. Hence the name. There's clean sound, organized, harmonious chaos and scant vocals. On the rest of the album, you can make out a guitar lick here, a drumbeat there, even the tinkling of the marimba - but with all the added distortion, static, feedback, and other random noise it's hard to tell what's going on.

Supposedly, the album's lyrics delve into "elevated soul searching" and "scathing post-modern commentaries." Intriguing, but it would be a redeeming quality to the album if you could actually understand them. "Touch my lips to speak again, broken six-strings ring again," sings Nikolaisen in "Drain Cosmetics," a song about freedom from superficiality. I'll take the CD jacket's word for it, but too much going on in the background rendered the lyrics unintelligible. In "Chorale Luck," Nikolaisen sings he is "stripped naked like that lonely fall." It's punk pop feel and definite choral chanting makes for a hypnotic melody - but I still couldn't make out those lyrics.

In fact, lyrics are scarce throughout the whole album. The vocals are angelic, yet haunting and melancholy; it kind of reminds me of mermaids beckoning sailors to their death. There are intermitted vocals in "Sapphire Eyes" and "Her Name is Suicide." "Beehiver II" throws you with screaming, and in "Un-Deux" the lyrics are actually understandable - but by the time you get to them, you know to pay no mind because they distract from this album's occasional saving grace - the music.

The only sense of structure amidst all the chaos is anchored by the drums - especially in "Selina's Melodie Fountain" and "Candlelighted." The thing about "Candlelighted" is that the trippy repetition gets old. But hang on, three minutes and 47 seconds in it gets better. Oddly soothing, strangely melodic, the instrumentals actually blend and get clearer at the same time. It's arguably the best track on the album.

The other may be "Don't Come Down Here," perhaps because it's an uncharacteristic track. No distortion, no effects. Abruptly, the song totally switches to a muffled distorted guitar solo then transitions seamlessly back to a fusion of both styles, finding balance. Although it is pleasant and definitely the easiest track on the ears, it could also be the most boring and uninspired track on the album.

If you happen to listen to the CD, the song intros are the only parts worth hearing. Be warned - it gets old before it gets better.