mexicolas the minerva suite

Released: 16 May 2011 Label: In Exile Records

With the debut album X being released in 2008, Mexicolas is already woven tight in the music industries net. However, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and now pretty much ‘everything else-ist’ Jamie Evans, has pushed all the buttons himself to issue the latest album The Minerva Suite.
 
The first crumble of the cookie is Lullaby. His croaky yet cute vocals fit like hinge and bracket with the husky guitar skills. I can generally say there is no part of this song that isn’t flush! Good choice of opening song, it’s a real scene setter!

For the second bite, up comes Bright Sparks. Unlike Lullaby, Bright Sparks is very ‘wiry’. Yes it is still well-drawn out and his technical ability to vary his musical skills shine throughout. We get a chunk of everything including singing and rapping. Even though the song is very ‘pacey’ the rapping brings much more bounce.

By the time the album hits Logic the album becomes a little ‘flick through and see what the next song is’. However it isn’t a bad song. His quirky chords, ‘hippyish’ vocals and self-taught trudging drumbeats are like drawstrings to the song! He’s got his own style fair enough, but by the fourth song in maybe a shot of variety could have been injected.

Fortunately, along comes Closer. Evans really does sing this from the gut! His vocals are nothing short of top notch; not just in his ability to sing but the emotion he puts in illuminates the song. Its slow, simple, flowing mechanisms just give a ‘now that’s what I’m talking about’ effect. One of the songs of the album me thinks!

Halo sets a completely different scene to the album; totally picks it up. It’s like the lovechild that the album needed just to bring a bit more spark to it. Finally the album is starting to look like a jumble sale; he’s showing off his variability skills. If you want a lip biter and a neck grinder, this is your song!

So along comes Fred Astaire. So far the other songs on the album have a simple pattern; this song just defies every rule put together. With Its slow, mellow intro and the relaxing backbone drumming, it seems like a song you’d listen to when you’re chilling with your IPod. I don’t want to give away the song too much but put it this way, the bridge of the song won’t leave you chilled for much longer!

To fence off the album Mexicolas cranks out Room With a View. Again like Halo, the song has much more variety to it. He goes from second gear up to fifth then back to second again all in one song. Nice way to round off the album it’s a very ‘look what I can do’ song. Nice idea there!

All in all The Minerva Suite isn’t a write off. He’s done a damn good job at pulling all this together himself so hats off to him! Maybe the album lacked a little variety at the beginning, but middle to end the caffeine kicked in and the floodgates opened putting a full-stop, next paragraph to his music career!

by Kathryn Longbottom