Serena Maneesh No 2 Abyss in B Minor (4AD)
3/5
By: Stephen Maughan
Serena Maneesh return four years on from their shoegazing sensation début, which gained rave reviews from newspaper broadsheets like the The Guardian, and the more predictable indie darlings of Pitchfork and Alternative Press (just so you know what we’re dealing with here). Cynics might suggest the presence of a certain Sufjan Stevens and a music press desperate for the next big thing over-hyped this Norwegian band, not quite understanding what they were really all about. Others, myself included, thought it was simply a pretty decent album.
So, four years later and we have the follow up, let's just call it Abyss (it was, after all, recorded in a cave), in which Serena-Maneesh carry on their same frantic and frankly at times overbearing noise, covered with layers upon layers of sugar-coated tweaked pop elements (which I am assuming is the very reason they bring Sufjan into the recording), and some exposed lyrics – haunting poems that remind you of the heyday Jesus and Mary Chain, particularly on the highlight 'Melody for Jaana'.
Despite this, Abyss is an average record. The obvious influences of Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine are felt throughout which works in their favour, but the trouble is Serena-Maneesh just aren't in the same league. It's an intimating, loud, confusing, and exhausting lsiten. Writing that makes me feel very old, for I am sure my mum would say the same thing about my Sonic Youth tapes in the car journey back from school. And there really is nothing more annoying than when you are happily enjoying a band before getting it turned off by someone claiming “What is that? It's just noise...”
My defence would be that some of the best records ever recorded are intimidating, loud, confusing, and exhausting. And let's not hide away from the fact that Abyss does have some fantastic moments where you feel like you’re right there in the cave with them. Describing said cave, singer Emile Nikolaisen talks of how “you can do as you please, leave the world before. [The cave]looked like a refugee hideout from World War II, with a huge, undiscovered treasure of sound”. Well Emile, I’m reminded of the old saying that one man's rubbish is another man's treasure, and as such I expect Abyss will divide a great number of people, which was probably their attention all along.
I'm missing the melodies that made My Bloody Valentine so attractive in their noise-drenched success. I can listen to Serena-Maneesh all day long, admiring their skill, and the ongoing battle between noise and pop, but I don't feel anything. Abyss doesn't excite me, it kind of reminds me of being in school and getting taught physics. Fascinating stuff, but I can't remember any of it.
Abyss is a chaotic and impressively made album. I have no idea how they got all this sound and effects into 38 minutes - the heavy guitars laced with flutes, the clashing electric lyrics - and I'd travel miles to see this band live, but I’m just not quite sure it comes across that well here - despite the best effects of Sufjan Stevens, a few more melodies and little less of a battlefield sound would work wonders.
Artists in this article: Serena Maneesh
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