Album Review: MONEY - Suicide songs

With Christmas just around the corner, the music on our radios is about joy, happiness and having a good time. But come January we are all fed up of the bells and the sparkle. The festive season behind us and the nights are dark and long. Nights out and Christmas parties turn to cheap nights in, and finishing off the last of the Baileys. Thoughts of over indulging turn to thoughts of joining the gym again. All that’s left of the festive season are those new years resolutions that in the back of your mind you know you will never keep. On January 29th, Manchester based four piece MONEY get their shit together again, and release their new collection of songs on Bella Union. It is called ‘Suicide songs’. I’m sure you don’t need to be a genius to work out that this isn’t going to be the album that gets you out of your post-Christmas slump. But if you want to revel in your own melancholy a little longer, then read on. It even finishes with a track called ‘Cocaine Christmas & An Alcoholic’s’s New Year’. But we’ll get to that in a moment. Let’s start at the beginning.

The album is to be the boys’ second. It follows on from their 2013 debut ‘The Shadow Of Heaven’. The first sounds we had of the new album came in the shape of leading track ‘You Look Like A Sad Painting On Both Sides Of The Sky’. It is a perfect taster for what the album is about. It has a tragic but delicate beauty, both in the lyrics and the dark, brooding melody. All the tracks included are acoustic guitar lead that would be perfect to sing around a campfire. Lyrically they are desperate and longing. But when you’re listening get to an album called ‘Suicide Songs’ what else would you expect? Never more so on the title track (of sorts). ‘Suicide Song’ weighs in at a little over two minutes and slots right in to the middle of the album. The stripped down nature of the track, like many others on the album, allows the lyrics and the emotive vocals to step to the fire front. Big production is not this album starts thing. Instead the songs speak for themselves.

The opening track ‘I Am The Lord’ kicks things in an epic way. It is one the longer tracks, and it lends well to the style of music they do. ‘Night Came’ clocks in at over eight minutes, and it builds and builds from quiet beginnings to a dramatic end. They create a sound that builds on what bands like The Cure and The House Of Love created in the eighties. There is a real beauty that lies in that tragic sound.

‘Suicide Songs’ never shouts out for attention. If you were to hear it in the background it would not have the same effect. Instead it is an album that needs to be listened to with attention. The standard never slips right until the end. But there are only nine tracks, so it never feels like it has been filled out. Each track has its place, and runs well in its order. Whilst the sum of its parts can work well on their own, it sounds better starting from track one and letting it run right through. Recent single ‘I’ll Be The Night’ is a welcome pick me up towards the end of the album. ‘Cocaine Christmas & An Alcoholic’s New Year’ is a ‘Fairytale Of New York’ for today. It has an authentic feel to it, that sounds like it could have been performed by a man in a whiskey induced haze. The best has been saved for last. It’s just a shame it won’t be heard until after the new year.

‘Suicide Songs’ is out on 29th January, and is available to pre-order now.

Track Listing

I Am The Lord
I’m Not Here
You Look Like A Sad Painting On Both Sides Of The Sky
Night Came
Suicide Song
Hopeless World
I’ll Be The Night
All My Life
A Cocaine Christmas and an Alcoholic’s New Year