Menomena - Mines

Just now, I looked at the world we saw this year. Over at the Big Picture are hundreds of images captured by photo-journalists, collected to summarise the year as a whole. From Julian Assange to Port-au-Prince, there is documentation that gives you an almighty impression of how diverse, how thrilling, heartbreaking, frightening life can be, depending on where you may be. In just 120 photos, I felt different. Soundtracking my viewing of these photographs was ‘Mines’ and although it was never my intention to include this record in our final 25, it certainly is now.

Menomena might seek kudos for their capability in making their own recording equipment, sound effects. They might even seek it for their lyrics. But overall ‘Mines’ is merely the soundtrack; the soundtrack to absolutely everything. Previously Menomena’s records were tight, smartly-constructed. Here, bigger ideas are introduced; a kaleidoscopic picture; a much larger sense of awareness. This is quite easily the one of the more ambitious records you’ll hear all year.

‘INTIL’ and ‘Dirty Cartoons’ soundtrack the moments of utter despair, ‘Five Little Rooms’ the sense of excitement, ‘BOTE’ the conflict and the battle, ‘Killemall’ the hope and the re-uniting. Take this with you across the world if you can. ‘Mines’ can make you smile, cry, shout; it will if you give it the right home. [JM]