Expectations: Serena Maneesh will prominently feature a sitar.
Song 1: Either Serena is not a one-woman act or she's been taking dude-pills because there's definitely a lower register in there. Sounds a bit like Black Rebel + diet estrogen.
Song 2: I would bet nearly any amount of money that this is the first time the band has played this song together.
Song 4/5: It would be easier to listen if I knew that the rambling drumbeats and the chance guitar clatters eventually sync up and become something tangible. Human nature allows us to tolerate duality for some time, as long as we know that it's temporary. But Le Mythe tells us that we can't live with paradox, and there's nothing binding these songs. And no, a quick drum fill does not appease Camus.
Song 6: We see what you're going for, and we really want you to get there, but an atmospheric shoegazer really needs to, umm, fill up the room. While I was wondering if I could fill in for the drummer of this band if he got sick, I found this website that allowed me to answer that question definitively. http://www.lab11.be/lamachineabruit/virtual-drums.html. Nope.
Song 7: Promising upsurge, breaking out into a grown-up drum drive and some respectable vocal calisthenics. Wait, is the song over? Did they leave their guitars reverb-ing in the studio as they left for sashimi? No, someone's still going. That poor guy, he'll probably be left with just some Miso soup. But he has integrity. Play to the whistle, sir.
Song 8: Better...all the elements sound like they belong to the same song. This is a chick, right? This song is devolving into something a little more sinister than they let previously let on. Why wait so long - this is what your band was built for! There's three minutes left in this song and I fear they could really muddle it up. I can almost...see...the finish. The Maneeshes acquitted themselves nicely, but the song did drag on 90 seconds too long.
Song 9/10: Ok, they're paying for studio time by the hour - the last two songs were about 4 1/2 minutes combined, 9 woke me out of a slumber, 10 nestled me back in and prepared me for...
Song 11: Over twelve minutes of wandering beats and lazy fireside guitars with some faux-culminations. Kenny G doesn't even dominate the "how long can you hold a note" competitions like this. Brief moment of drive, followed of course by a bit of chaos that boldly goes on too long. Topped off by a fake ending and a delicate piano solo that has no business here but is quite pleasant. Wait - where the fuck was the sitar? You couldn't have squeezed a sitar in that twelve minutes somewhere?
Stay tuned for "Second Impressions of Serena Maneesh"
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