Lightyear-esque brass bits are completely fine by me, but throwing in some daft vocals, GCSE-esque lyrics and, wait, is that scratching (?!) into the mix just sounds like a recipe for disaster. Sadly for Mista Mushroom, the 12 songs here are a bit of an amalgamation of several different bands, so their penchance for being a bit zany comes off as being a bit, well, crap. I’m all for being a bit different – and MM are certainly that – but ‘Class As On A School Night’ seems to encompass every single musical genre ever, and it’s a bit much for little old me.
‘Prison? Me?! No!!!’ seems to go from Lightyear to The Beastie Boys to Korn in the space of one song, which is no mean feat. And while it’s interesting, it just comes across as a bit of a mess. I’m not sure what the band really want to sound like – are they a zany ska band or something a bit more unique? I’m not sure, and the car crash that is this album doesn’t seem decidedly sure either. There are some good moments here, but there’s not one complete track that makes me think ‘this band are good’. Instead I’m left thinking there are plenty of good ideas, and talented musicians, but put it all together and I’m not convinced at all that it works.
www.myspace.com/mistamushroom
Paul