It's Only Us

Well into their second decade with four albums in the rearview, Monophonics tighten their alliance with Ohios Colemine Records, the dusty soul specialists who have issued some of their singles, for Its Only Us. Recorded at their Transistor Sound Studio home base, this is a little trippier and looser than the preceding Sound of Sinning. Maybe its merely coincidental, but its certainly appropriate that the Bay Area band, recording for a Midwest label, move a little closer here toward the early-70s output of Chicago and Detroit labels like Curtom, Cadet Concept, and Westbound. They stretch out on Last One Standing, unfurling a rolling groove that recalls Curtis Mayfields Move on Up, and at some points recall the slightly eerie rock/soul experiments Charles Stepney conducted with the Rotary Connection (though the arsenal of keyboards for those sessions wasnt nearly as extensive). At the same time, Monophonics often allude to the kind of turmoil and uncertainty shared by the evoked and current eras, intensifying the fraught mood by submerging their sound in reverb. No matter how much Kelly Finnigan cloaks or smears his sweet and sour voice, hes one of the more affecting singers of his kind, the focal point amid an expertly arranged band and supporting voices, strings, and brass. ~ Andy Kellman