Menomena

Add Date: September 11 

Artist: Menomena 

Album: Moms 

Label: Barsuk 

Genre: Rock, alt-pop 

Comments: Portland musical experimentalists Menomena have become known for their avant-garde approach to crafting pop-rock songs: namely, crazy rhythms, off-kilter songwriting and instrumentation that seemed impossible for just three people to tackle. And now, the trio has become a duo; following the release of 2010's Mines, Brent Knopf left the band to concentrate on his Ramona Falls project, which put out a very fine album, Prophet, earlier this year.

It turns out that Knopf's departure was a win-win, as Justin Harris and Danny Seim keep Menomena rolling right along on Moms, the band's third LP for Barsuk. The songs may not be quite as jam-packed with different sounds as on previous albums--though there's certainly plenty going on here--but in a sense, that may help the music breathe a bit. And the 10 tracks here are as fine a set of tunes as Menomena has ever crafted.

Equal parts space-pop and alt-rock, Moms is another winner. Start with tracks 1, 5, 4, 3 and 8.