The Monday Review

The Implied Neutral Sons. Five Stars.

One year after The Ballad of Ariel Piccolo, Neutral Sons teamed up once more, this CD being the result. Englishman Mark Cottrell took the production helm, designed the artwork and gained solo songwriting credits for the first time. Hence, The Implied has a more cohesive sound than Ariel Piccolo and it is also a more diplomatic work.

Now, a quick word about the title. It's a rather awkward joke, as "The Implied" is quite literal. "The" is written on all the songs as T'

With that explained, it's on to the opening number T'Conference. A loop that sounds a bit like a party played backwards gets it going, then a tinny little riff puts the song into focus. Richard Knutson (the American) handles all the vocals. It's not terribly memorable, but it's high quality. What's it about? Beats me.

It leads into T'Devil's Kiss, a soothing track. This is Cottrell's work. It's one of those "woman let me down" songs, and it's really a nice interlude, resigned but not complaining in tone.

T'Donkee puts the record into trippy waters. Lots of neat turns of phrase make it a solid standout.

T'Face of T'Shine (?????) passes the vocals back to Knutson. It's full of loops, therefore full of ear candy. It's rather woozy, complimenting the black and white cover art.

T'Frequency has fantastic percussion. Oh, it's weird. Only one verse, sung in unsettling duet. Its meaning is too deep for me, but the whole thing has an atmosphere of the sinister and uncanny.

T'Hole continues to work in the bizarre. Knutson does scat vocals to accent the drums while Cottrell sings some kind of gutter gothic over loungy music.

T'Jaaam Doctor (based on a comedy skit) is a nearly spoken exchange. It manages to be morose, disturbing and funny all at once.

Luckily, we get back to music on the more upbeat Side Two. T'Kalmer almost sounds accessable to start, before breaking into a Talking Heads style chorus. The bridge revves up fast, a fantastic, rocking moment. The verses make a nice contrast, being quite wistful.

T'Oken Old Git (stretching the naming joke here) is a complete rock tune. The lyric is hilarious. The whole thing sounds like a pastiche.

T' Old Queen (that's the male sort, I do believe) is a rather sunny track, bouncy and light. Short, and with an excellent coda.

T'Spacebook starts with more runaway zaniness. Ignoring that, it becomes another excellent song. Guitar driven, with Cottrell's backing vocals standing in for percussion. Knutson sings in his "hip" voice about what appears to be internet popularity, though it is somewhat abstruse.

T'Stones is an ancient Knutson song he had lying about. It was dusted off and revitalized for this record, though Cottrell only adds backing vocals. Pure class. (I'll refrain from further comment, due to my own extremely favorable bias)

That being such an interesting, serious song, these guys just had to take the mickey out of themselves with T'Ziki Bint. It's purposefully camp, the lyrics fun and dumb. It's a good-natured closer, and will keep most people from ever taking The Implied Neutral Sons seriously. However, it can grow on you.

That's the album. A well-crafted hour's worth of entertainment. When Ariel Piccolo came out, I was skeptical as to how they'd top it; however, they have done so. The Implied is a far more unified listening experience, thereby making it another step up in this musical partnership. Now I only wonder how they'll ever improve upon it next time.

See you next Monday.