Menomena - Mines

The Line of Best Fit“Rarely predictable and never bloated...” It’s tremendous – complex and contradictory, confident yet introspected and always always interesting. That alone should be enough to recommend it. At points it’s an effort to accept that these songs were made by just three people...

BBC“Elevates the songs to new heights...” Their past collections may have proved Menomena’s technical skill and abundant imagination, but their latest effort ought to propel them to the very forefront of independent American music....

Drowned In Sound“A trio of reliably progressive, thoughtful musicians...” An album of exceptional maturity, which itself is a symptom of their talent for avoiding clichés and their ability to prevent listeners from making any assumptions about what their music should be...

Dusted Magazine“Way more unified than previous Menomena efforts...” There’s still a lot of the band’s patented spazzy energy, its penchant for disparate parts and sudden shifts, but it all fits together better this time...

The Independent“Recorded in much the same way as previous efforts...” The biggest surprise about the latest from this Portland, Oregon, trio is how darn traditional it sounds. At its best, the backing music has a Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-ish way of morphing under the nose of the song...

Guardian“They could be one of the year's belated breakouts...” A three-piece intertwined with other Portland acts and side-projects; the trio's demi-operatic mixture of inquisitive basslines, jumpstart saxophone and running piano could easily prove a mess, but it's often shirt-grabbingly thrilling...

allmusic“An exercise in controlled chaos...” Meaning fans both old and new will have no trouble diving into its easygoing rhythms, and if they stick around to fully explore its depths, they’ll find that there’s plenty to like...

MusicOMH“It rewards both casual and obsessive revisiting...” All the hummingbird hyperactivity of its creation has been spread around the soundfield, lending the album's straightforward songcraft an air of distinct importance and impossible gravity...

Pitchfork“A consistently great band...” There's a lot of room for your ear to roam on Mines, and it reveals itself over the course of a few listens as a very satisfying album worth exploring and revisiting...

NME“It needs to be heard to be believed...” They should probably piss each other off more often if it gets results like this; each track on their fourth boasting a captivating blend of experimentalism and depth...