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               MNDR - Feed Me Diamonds

        Label.........................: Ultra
        Genre.........................: Electronic
        StoreDate.....................: Aug-14-2012
        Source........................: CDDA
        Grabber.......................: Exact Audio Copy (Secure Mode)
        Encoding Scheme...............: Lame 3.98.4 V0 VBR Joint-Stereo
        Size..........................: 83.50 MB
        Total Playing Time............: 44:46

        Release Notes:

        It's neither Amanda Warner's fault nor entirely ignorable that she's
        surrounded by so many peers. Warner, who's performed for years with
        producer Peter Wade under the moniker MNDR, makes buzzy synthpop amid a
        deafening buzz of likeminded bands, and from any point in her career,
        it's a short step to two or three rough analogues or influences. After a
        couple of years jobbing behind the scenes for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and
        others, Warner's break came in 2010 when she lent a careening hook and
        Francophone snappiness to "Bang Bang Bang" by Mark Ronson, an act
        arguably better known for his antecedents (the vague, remembered 1960s),
        protΘgΘes, and followers than his actual music. This proves apt. The EP
        that caught Ronson's notice, E.P.E., strutted and shouted and revived
        all the 80s synthpop fit to get print. It commanded both attention and
        an inevitable clutter of comparisons: La Roux, Santigold, Goldfrapp.

        The namedrops were predictable, but not entirely unwarranted. Warner's
        said she turned down various unnamed honchos with Katy Perry designs,
        though she didn't mind tossing tracks about with Patrik Berger, who
        co-wrote Robyn's "Dancing on My Own", and in the past few years she's
        built up a small battalion of collaborators eager to emulate that track.
        E.P.E. and its follow-ups are primarily Warner and Wade's work, but it's
        hard not to hear their influences. "I go my own wayà/ This is my
        anthem," Warner sang on lead single "I Go Away" over meticulously
        rippling percussion and sumptuous synths; her way, by all indications,
        was stylish and fully formed, but perhaps a little too timely.

        Two years later, Warner's debut LP arrives in much the same manner. She
        bursts off the cover of Feed Me Diamonds amid neon and chrome shrapnel;
        it's arresting, but it's pastiche. The music inside is much the same: 12
        mostly solid electro-pop tracks that are immediate, immaculate, and
        suited equally to outlets populist-- "U.B.C.L." appeared in Jersey Shore
        in a prior rewrite-- and outrΘ. The album's custom-built, in other
        words, to the synthpop template of the past few years. Some tracks veer
        house, others electroclash, others toward an 80s slow dance. Strewn
        through the mix are percussion stutters and pinball noises, and dubstep
        touches you could actually call tasteful. "Burning Hearts" begins with
        hoover synths, guitar bluster, and slivered vocal samples, like the
        Sleigh Bells/Purity Ring hybrid that legions undoubtedly asked for; it's
        even got spider imagery that could have crawled off the latter's debut.
        "Waiting" rides either a "Tainted Love" groove or whatever's left of it
        after three decades of further tainting. Albums like these have a few
        things in common. They're generally likeable. They almost always sound
        fantastic. At their worst, they substitute sheen for swagger and noise
        for punch; at their best, they have all four.

        At her best, MNDR does. Single "#1 in Heaven", inspired by kidnapped
        then corrupted robber-heiress Patty Hearst, gleams like a bumper
        sticker; it turns her post-arrest taunts into a killer hook ("Tell them
        I'm smiling/ Send my greetings") and her bank stickup into instructions
        for the dance floor ("put your hands above your headà."). Warner's
        similarly occupied on loopy club anthem "U.B.C.L.", a rework of EPE's
        leadoff track, skewed only as much as its title. It's half as clever as
        it thinks it is, but probably twice as functional. "Sparrow Voices" is
        bracing, Warner and a sequencer trying to outfeint one another, though
        it's probably advisable to ignore anything it's trying to say about the
        cracks in China's economy.

        That's the sort of topicality MNDR ascribes to almost every track. She's
        called the album an attempt to "[challenge] money, wealth, power and the
        class system," an admirable goal for a different occasion. It's not that
        dance-pop can't be subverted, but Hearst repurposed as a dancing queen
        is roughly par here. "Fall in Love With the Enemy" doesn't get much
        deeper than saying it isn't a choice. "Blue Jean Youth" is a list of
        nostalgia checkpoints that aims for iconic but lands somewhere around
        clip art. These are missteps, though, and few. "Faster Horses", named
        for an apocryphal Henry Ford quote ("if I'd asked my customers what they
        wanted, they'd have said faster horses") is noisy and addled-- the vague
        vocal patois on "the front ro-ow... you don't kno-owö has too many
        similarities to mention-- but as a commentary on the genre's demand for
        ever-catchier material, it works.

        Feed Me Diamonds is best, though, when it gets emotionally heady. At
        first "Stay" sounds too chilly, too insistent on delivering pat
        soundbites like "I'm not going to fade away," but the way the chorus
        trails off and the catch in Warner's voice when she sings "aching"
        betrays the act. The title track, meanwhile, is all catches. It's got
        its footnotes-- the reference this time is a quote by performance artist
        Marina Abramovic' about how her father was killed after being fed
        fine-pureed diamonds-- but you don't need to consult them to hear the
        masochism in Warner's voice as she meanders from the first crafted
        couplet ("lie with me, lie to me") on through reduction and
        dismantlement metaphors. MNDR always had style; here, at least, the
        substance has caught up.

        --7.1/10 Pitchfork

                                Tracklisting

     01. #1 In Heaven                                                   3:52
     02. Stay                                                           3:22
     03. Faster Horses                                                  3:42
     04. Blue Jean Youth                                                2:57
     05. Fall In Love With The Enemy                                    3:52
     06. U.B.C.L.                                                       4:32
     07. Feed Me Diamonds                                               3:30
     08. Burning Hearts                                                 4:03
     09. Sooner Or Later                                                3:59
     10. Waiting                                                        3:04
     11. Sparrow Voices                                                 4:16
     12. I Go Away                                                      3:37

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               MNDR - Feed Me Diamonds

        Label.........................: Ultra
        Genre.........................: Electronic
        StoreDate.....................: Aug-14-2012
        Source........................: CDDA
        Grabber.......................: Exact Audio Copy (Secure Mode)
        Encoding Scheme...............: Lame 3.98.4 V0 VBR Joint-Stereo
        Size..........................: 83.50 MB
        Total Playing Time............: 44:46

        Release Notes:

        It's neither Amanda Warner's fault nor entirely ignorable that she's
        surrounded by so many peers. Warner, who's performed for years with
        producer Peter Wade under the moniker MNDR, makes buzzy synthpop amid a
        deafening buzz of likeminded bands, and from any point in her career,
        it's a short step to two or three rough analogues or influences. After a
        couple of years jobbing behind the scenes for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and
        others, Warner's break came in 2010 when she lent a careening hook and
        Francophone snappiness to "Bang Bang Bang" by Mark Ronson, an act
        arguably better known for his antecedents (the vague, remembered 1960s),
        protégées, and followers than his actual music. This proves apt. The EP
        that caught Ronson's notice, E.P.E., strutted and shouted and revived
        all the 80s synthpop fit to get print. It commanded both attention and
        an inevitable clutter of comparisons: La Roux, Santigold, Goldfrapp.

        The namedrops were predictable, but not entirely unwarranted. Warner's
        said she turned down various unnamed honchos with Katy Perry designs,
        though she didn't mind tossing tracks about with Patrik Berger, who
        co-wrote Robyn's "Dancing on My Own", and in the past few years she's
        built up a small battalion of collaborators eager to emulate that track.
        E.P.E. and its follow-ups are primarily Warner and Wade's work, but it's
        hard not to hear their influences. "I go my own way…/ This is my
        anthem," Warner sang on lead single "I Go Away" over meticulously
        rippling percussion and sumptuous synths; her way, by all indications,
        was stylish and fully formed, but perhaps a little too timely.

        Two years later, Warner's debut LP arrives in much the same manner. She
        bursts off the cover of Feed Me Diamonds amid neon and chrome shrapnel;
        it's arresting, but it's pastiche. The music inside is much the same: 12
        mostly solid electro-pop tracks that are immediate, immaculate, and
        suited equally to outlets populist-- "U.B.C.L." appeared in Jersey Shore
        in a prior rewrite-- and outré. The album's custom-built, in other
        words, to the synthpop template of the past few years. Some tracks veer
        house, others electroclash, others toward an 80s slow dance. Strewn
        through the mix are percussion stutters and pinball noises, and dubstep
        touches you could actually call tasteful. "Burning Hearts" begins with
        hoover synths, guitar bluster, and slivered vocal samples, like the
        Sleigh Bells/Purity Ring hybrid that legions undoubtedly asked for; it's
        even got spider imagery that could have crawled off the latter's debut.
        "Waiting" rides either a "Tainted Love" groove or whatever's left of it
        after three decades of further tainting. Albums like these have a few
        things in common. They're generally likeable. They almost always sound
        fantastic. At their worst, they substitute sheen for swagger and noise
        for punch; at their best, they have all four.

        At her best, MNDR does. Single "#1 in Heaven", inspired by kidnapped
        then corrupted robber-heiress Patty Hearst, gleams like a bumper
        sticker; it turns her post-arrest taunts into a killer hook ("Tell them
        I'm smiling/ Send my greetings") and her bank stickup into instructions
        for the dance floor ("put your hands above your head…."). Warner's
        similarly occupied on loopy club anthem "U.B.C.L.", a rework of EPE's
        leadoff track, skewed only as much as its title. It's half as clever as
        it thinks it is, but probably twice as functional. "Sparrow Voices" is
        bracing, Warner and a sequencer trying to outfeint one another, though
        it's probably advisable to ignore anything it's trying to say about the
        cracks in China's economy.

        That's the sort of topicality MNDR ascribes to almost every track. She's
        called the album an attempt to "[challenge] money, wealth, power and the
        class system," an admirable goal for a different occasion. It's not that
        dance-pop can't be subverted, but Hearst repurposed as a dancing queen
        is roughly par here. "Fall in Love With the Enemy" doesn't get much
        deeper than saying it isn't a choice. "Blue Jean Youth" is a list of
        nostalgia checkpoints that aims for iconic but lands somewhere around
        clip art. These are missteps, though, and few. "Faster Horses", named
        for an apocryphal Henry Ford quote ("if I'd asked my customers what they
        wanted, they'd have said faster horses") is noisy and addled-- the vague
        vocal patois on "the front ro-ow... you don't kno-ow” has too many
        similarities to mention-- but as a commentary on the genre's demand for
        ever-catchier material, it works.

        Feed Me Diamonds is best, though, when it gets emotionally heady. At
        first "Stay" sounds too chilly, too insistent on delivering pat
        soundbites like "I'm not going to fade away," but the way the chorus
        trails off and the catch in Warner's voice when she sings "aching"
        betrays the act. The title track, meanwhile, is all catches. It's got
        its footnotes-- the reference this time is a quote by performance artist
        Marina Abramovic' about how her father was killed after being fed
        fine-pureed diamonds-- but you don't need to consult them to hear the
        masochism in Warner's voice as she meanders from the first crafted
        couplet ("lie with me, lie to me") on through reduction and
        dismantlement metaphors. MNDR always had style; here, at least, the
        substance has caught up.

        --7.1/10 Pitchfork

                                Tracklisting

     01. #1 In Heaven                                                   3:52
     02. Stay                                                           3:22
     03. Faster Horses                                                  3:42
     04. Blue Jean Youth                                                2:57
     05. Fall In Love With The Enemy                                    3:52
     06. U.B.C.L.                                                       4:32
     07. Feed Me Diamonds                                               3:30
     08. Burning Hearts                                                 4:03
     09. Sooner Or Later                                                3:59
     10. Waiting                                                        3:04
     11. Sparrow Voices                                                 4:16
     12. I Go Away                                                      3:37

                     Support The Artists, Buy Their Music....



This NFO File was rendered by NFOmation.net


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