REVIEW: Menomena - Five Little Rooms

Portland’s Menomena are an undeniably unique band. Using a plethora of instruments combined with looping software, the three-piece create textured landscapes that call to mind the dense complexity of bands like TV On The Radio and These New Puritans, with whom they also share some common ground sonically. Their recently released fourth album, Mines, sees them develop more of an interest in pop-friendly melodies, and from it they are offering the song Five Little Rooms for free download.

Five Little Rooms is a stunningly intricate and broodingly intense track. Fading into vision with one softly strummed note, its opening passage houses a tight-lipped baritone sax, a pizzicato string section and melancholy piano phrases, all of which tip-toe around each other while drummer Danny Seim delivers a haunting vocal. The song intensifies as it lumbers forward, its bare bones fleshed out as the various instruments begin to overlap and are joined by still more. Its chorus finds the repeated vocal hook “all this could be yours someday” cocooned in wailing guitars, rumbling bass and piercing synths, all of which peal away tantalisingly slowly to reveal a single, brittle piano hook that signals the song’s end. It’s a breathtaking journey that demands you retrace your steps over and over again.