A quick Wikipedia search on The Mint Chicks throws up the following: They formed in 2001, and were signed to legendary indie label Flying Nun (home to earlier cult bands like The Clean, The Verlaines and The Chills). They’ve supported TV on the Radio and the White Stripes, and they were hailed as the loudest band in New Zealand after bringing down part of the roof when opening for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The lead singer, Kody Neilson, is also infamous for using a chainsaw to cut down a corporate sponsor’s banner at the Big Day Out festival.
Given these ‘basic facts’, you’d be forgiven for being a little apprehensive about listening to ‘Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!’. You might expect it to be noisy, abrasive, and inaccessible. If this was the case, you’d be two thirds right.
CYDN is the bands second full length LP. Their first, ‘Fuck the Golden Youth’, followed two acclaimed EP’s. However it was undeservedly panned by many due to its lo-fi, murky production. What many reviews failed to comprehend was that the production was simply an attempt on the part of the band to hide the sheer likeability of their aesthetic.
But where FTGY buried its hooks in distortion and yelling, CYDN puts its proudly on display. The band’s myspace describes their sounds as ‘power pop’, and one listen confirms this as completely appropriate. While still fragmented and harsh, the record allows The Mint Chicks’ pop punk roots to shine through the dirt. Named the best album of 2006 by the New Zealand Herald (above the likes of The Arctic Monkeys and Thom Yorke), CYDY is astoundingly good.
The album’s title-track became a major hit in New Zealand, staying at number one of the charts for some weeks. However most of the other songs on the album are unlikely to garner as much popularity. Tracks like ‘She’s Back on Crack’ and ‘If My Arm Was a Mic Stand, Would You Hold My Hand?’ possess a genius that is too quirky and unconventional to make CYDN more than a novelty for many listeners, while ‘You’re Just As Confused As I Am’ and ‘Ockham’s Razor’ are a polished throwback to Fuck the Golden Youth’s dirty punk chaos. Lyrics such as Ockham’s “treat ‘em mean and keep ‘em keen/oh that’s sickening/all the love you’ve ever seen/if you wash it down with gasoline” are hard to envision on top 40 radio.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT-QiClpJKU&feature=related]
The Mint Chicks - ‘Walking off a Cliff Again‘
The final track, ‘100 Minutes Of Silence’, stops CYDN from being all that it could. It’s not that it’s a bad track in itself; rather, it’s haunting, almost Sigur Ros-esque piano contrasts so extremely with the rest of the album that it leaves the listener with the impression that the album was inconsistent, even though this is generally not the case. In, fact CYDN is far more consistent than any of the bands’ other output.
Despite this, CYDN is one of the best albums I’ve ever heard. It’s smart, witty, dirty, catchy, and thoroughly worth your time and money.
- Nick.
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