Moneen - The Red Tree

"The Red Tree," Moneen's brand new album, lets us all know that they are here to stay. The album kicks off with one of the album's best tracks, "Don't Ever Tell Locke What He Can't Do," and gets you prepared for a hard-hitting, in your face album. Although there are a few slower jams on the album, for the most part, the album continues to bring the rock. However, Moneen has lost some of their...weirdness, for lack of a better word, and it is missed greatly throughout the entire album. There are really no times where you feel as if a song is approaching it's end as it gradually slows itself down, only to come back in rocking harder than it did when it began. There is no "on the edge of your seat" feeling that Moneen used to give you with almost every song. Also, the vocals of lead singer, Kenny Bridges, are much better than they were on previous albums, which is shockingly disappointing. Any Moneen fan will miss the raw energy that used to stream from Bridge's vocal chords as he yelled out just about every one of his lyrics. Not to say that there is no energy in his vocals, because there is clearly still plenty of it...just not quite as much. However, to make up for the improved vocals, Bridge's lyrics are still as good as ever, if not better than before, which is saying a lot considering that he has never failed in the past to lay great lyrics on the table. All of the music on the album is solid, although not as creative as it was on albums prior to "The Red Tree". Moneen uses a lot of 3/4 timing on this album, which is usually pretty annoying when most bands use it, but Moneen does it much better than most by adding extra measures whenever they feel like it and throwing other timings in the middle of the songs as well. The album closes with a track called "The Song I Swore To Never Sing," which is pretty different, even for Moneen. The piano-based track has all kinds of background noise and even some strings on there as well, which is something that Moneen has never done in the past. Every track on this album is solid, but Moneen is just missing some of their charm that you used to have. Overall, I give the album a 3.5 out of 5. It was only $5.99 at Best Buy, so you can't really go wrong there.