A half century after its heyday, the progressive rock scene soldiers on in various forms. There are some newer bands emerging, but much of the music in the genre is being generated by long-time veterans, the best of whom continue to create interesting new music, rather than rehashing their old hits. I think one of the most creative of such current groups is The Mommyheads, a band that has been doing their own distinctive blend of art pop for 37 years now. They are out with their 16^th album, called One Eyed Band.

The Mommyheads were formed in 1987, while the members were still in high school around the New York area. The principle songwriter and lead vocalist is Adam Elk, the stage name of Adam Cohen who wanted to avoid confusion with Leonard Cohen’s son Adam. The band released a couple of major label albums, then broke up in 1988, with the members pursing other careers. Adam Elk turned his attention to creating commercial music, and drummer Dan Fisherman become a mathematics professor. The band decided to reunite in 2008, and have been performing intermittently, but recording rather prolifically. Elk says that it is his intent to create a new album every year. And they have managed to keep it fresh. In fact, I would say that this 16^th album by the group is likely their best yet. It emphasizes the band’s strengths, with creative musical arrangements reminiscent of the art rock bands from back in the day, especially XTC, and often intriguing lyrics, with well-thought out premises. While the band has had a somewhat rotating cast over the years, One Eyed Band features long-time group members Michael Holt on keyboards, who has worked with the group mainly in the studio but has not toured with them in recent years, back on the drums is Dan Fisherman, and the bassist is Jason McNair. Most of the album is self-contained – Elk is quite the studio ace creating elaborate productions mainly with the quartet and a lot of overdubbing, but there are a couple of guests, including jazz trumpeter John Sneider, who also wrote a horn arrangement.

Song topics are sometimes philosophical, getting into existential questions, including one on introspection about the band’s existence, but there is a rant about spam e-mails and texts, and a tribute to a Russian dissident.

Opening is one of those sets of philosophical lyrics, Chicken Soup imagines an astronaut stranded far away, and at first wanting to get home, but the realizing that the world might not be such a pleasant place. The arrangement spotlights the band’s clever art-pop sound. <<>>

A song called Life in a Dream is another philosophical musing, about a married couple, parents who find themselves separately feeling lost in life, and wondering what their role should be. <<>>

Season of Our Sound is a self-reflection on the band, wondering if they would have their season of ascendancy. <<>>

Architect considers a young student who studies great art and longs to be the creator of something enduring himself. Musically it’s another rather classic art-rock piece with its rhythmic twists and complex arrangement. <<>>

One of the most interesting pieces on this creative album is Risk It All, which Elk co-wrote with keyboard man Michael Holt. It was inspired by the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who died in a remote Russian prison under mysterious circumstances. Musically it’s also intriguing, with a reggae rhythmic feel in a 7-beat time signature. <>>

Serving as almost the title track is One Eyed Man another semi-autobiographical piece considering the band’s commitment to being artistically prolific, but to what end. <<>>

Anther very creative track is one called Junk, whose lyrics, Adam Elk says, consists entirely of quotes from spam e-mails he has received. It has a great art-rock musical treatment as well. <<>>

The album ends with The Gift another bit of rumination about life, possibly from the perspective of that lost astronaut of the first song, who after thinking that everything about his life as been a burden, comes to realize that life itself is the greatest gift. <<>>

One Eyed Band the new 16^th release by the long-running art rock-pop band the Mommyheads is, I think, probably their best yet. It nicely ties together the band’s strengths, with their complicated art-rock style arrangements with literate songs with all have a concept, idea or incident that forms the basis for what the song says, and notably, there are no love songs. Adam Elk and company create a gem that features great production and but can still sound rather melodic.

Our grade for audio quality is close to an “A,” with somewhat better clarity and cleaner sound that some of their previous albums, with an excellent mix. But the music’s ebb and flow, the dynamic range, how it reproduces the range between loud and soft, is undermined by the volume compression that is so ubiquitous on the pop music scene.

There’s the old cliché that practice makes perfect. That comes to fruition on this new 16^th album by the Mommyheads who are at the top of their form.

(c) Copyright 2024 George D. Graham. All rights reserved.
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<<>> indicates audio excerpt played in produced radio review

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