Minus - Long Face

  by Emma Haigh

published: 11 / 6 / 2004

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Review

Those who know and love Minus will be ecstatic to hear the latest release from their third album 'Halldor Laxness' on the Sugarcubes label Smekkleysa/Bad Taste SM. Those who don’t and aren’t are in for a bit of a teeter on the edge of an abyss that can only mean yet another group is being hailed Big Heap Good. Lyrically this song reads like an eighth grade poetry competition. This is an unholy mess of words that seem to have no connection, and a total lack of poeticism. And unless the Minus lot are onto something I’m wholly unaware of, I have trouble comprehending what they mean by "Soon you’ll regret being dead." The only redeeming possibility I can think of is that it might be a clever reference to 'Flatliners', because I certainly feel like killing myself. Perhaps I’m just being thick. But you try wrapping your mind around vocals that are fighting to drown out squalling tuneless trumpets and an inundation of screechy distortion. They sound like a murkier version of the Zutons, for whom I hold similar disdain, and who incidentally, I recall were ALSO deemed Big Heap Good, and who incidentally, are currently nowhere to be seen. Or heard. Thank God !

Track Listing:-

1 The Long Face
2 The Wedding Dress