[a friend of mine was lucky enough to score an advance of The Mood Swing's great new record...here are some of his thoughts]
No Limit, the follow up to the Mood Swing’s winning 2005 debut, Come On Tell Me, is being released into a popular music culture that is becoming increasingly atomized and fractured. The Mood Swings have boldly stepped into this bedlam with a bracing new collection of killer songs, world class production and winning style. After being confronted with one lame, overhyped “next big thing” after another, many music fans are often left to wonder, “Does anyone care about Rock anymore?” A quick spin thru No Limit leaves little doubt as to The Mood Swings answer – a resounding “HELL YEAH!”
Over the last two years, chief Mood Swingers Ashley Prenzlow and Sallie Watson, have tirelessly worked on establishing an almost anachronistic standard of excellence in the studio and on stage. A Mood Swings live show these days can be a startling experience – no gimmicks or grand concepts; they just show up, they kick ass and then they leave the audience wanting more, just like real rock bands used to do.
No Limit – coming your way in June courtesty of Susstones -- is as arresting as a Mood Swings live show but also confronts the listener with a new array of sonic treats and enchanting diversions. Producer Ed Ackerson (chief Polara songwriter and sonic architect; producer of a host of luminaries at his Flowers studio in Minneapolis; 2005 MMA Producer of the Year) has really brought his A-game to this project, injecting the 6 songs with his trademark expert flourishes and an amazing vitality that seemed barely possible a few years ago. Listening to No Limit is an unabashed joy, an experience rivaling anything available on the market now: “ordinary” pop songs reveal layers of complexity that belie their apparent simplicity, guitar solos come roaring out of the mix like runaway freight trains and the trademark Mood Swings vocal harmonies are elevated to an almost insane level of coolness. No Limit’s unabashed classic rock and pop references work perfectly without evoking the dreaded “R” word, yet there’s an intelligence and attitude at work here that is very much of the moment.
No Limit's 6 songs are all fully realized wonders – fun, catchy, rocking. The music and production are as organic as they are faultless. Poppy elements coexist peacefully with frighteningly authentic early 70s power rock sounds. Yearnings for the “simple things” in life set the table for a biting attack on corporate conformity that should be a big hit with worker drones far and wide. A groovy cover of a lost punk garage classic (courtesy of the late, great Pandoras) leads seamlessly into the ominously sinuous groove of the title track – a minor production miracle all by itself and perhaps the only song in the history to feature the call of the Loon and a Theremin.
The biggest surprise on No Limit is the Mood Swings decision to offer up as a bonus virtually a complete alternate version of the record as envisioned by a crack team of local remixers. 5 of the 6 tracks have been completely reimagined and added to the tracklisting in reverse order so the album becomes a self-contained journey into sound – starting in the land of rock and pop and ending in the outer limits of imagination, a brilliant, symmetrical concept that is both fascinating and ingenious. Like Primal Scream and the Happy Mondays before them, The Mood Swings refuse to be constrained by restrictive conventions and convincingly prove that a great rock song can become an even better dance track. The “no limit” attitude the remixers embraced results in a shuffler’s dream, encompassing the dance halls of Ibiza and Mexico, “indie-rock’ deconstructions, pure Electro lunacy and culminating with the last track, Zeus Jones’ Evolution of Rock remix, which takes the opener and transforms it into a virtual history of rock, melding the classic pop of “Simple Things” with a succession of iconic sonic signatures from The Beatles to New Order to Green Day and beyond.
If No Limit was released in another era, we may very well be talking about it in classic terms. But the Mood Swings don’t have time to worry about the past; the future is now. Join the Mood Swings as they continue to battle the forces of mediocrity, one anthem – and one remix – at a time.
