When a band like Menomena is composed of three songwriters and one of them ends up leaving, there’s huge hole left to be filled. In this case, Brent Knopf left the band to focus primarily on Ramona Falls, leaving Danny Seim and Justin Harris to continue on as a duo. We’ll get to find out how they’ve adapted to the change on September 18, when they release their fifth full-length album, Moms. For now, we get a peak of the new album with their first single, “Heavy is as Heavy Does.”
Menomena’s eclectic music style is rather hard to pinpoint and describe; closest I could come up with is experimental jazz with a dash of avant-garde (where else can you find the utmost bizarre time signatures that they utilize?). “Heavy Is as Heavy Does” is their most grounded and direct song to date. It is a piano-driven number with brooding chords played throughout. As the song progresses, the drums and bass enter to round-out the rest of the song, providing a lush rhythm section. Then, around the 2:40 mark, a psychedelic guitar solo is delivered blisteringly for about a full minute in typical Menomena fashion. The album title Moms suggests that the album could be running with a family-based theme and the lyrics here support that in a rather heavy-hearted way. The central figure in Miller’s narrative is his father, who caused his family tree to be “fucked-up.” Miller suggests his father was neglectful and won’t grant him any forgiveness as he poetically sings “Because I don’t believe in second chances/ It’s heavy as I leave/ As prideful a man he was/ Proud my father never was of me.”
“Heavy is as Heavy Does” won’t wow you with the most intricate display of musicianship, but it’s still a fine song. It shows their ability to lyrically write an emotionally captivating song, possibly hinting that Moms could show a more stripped down and raw Menomena than we’ve seen in the past.
