It seems as though the post-rock genre has grown stale over time.
It’s not that a vicious cycle has arisen, where bands feed off one another’s new ideas until every track under the umbrella term is mirrored, just that outside-of-the-box thinking has seemingly stopped flowing in the genre’s leading bands.
The Japanese post-rock legends’ sixth full-length release For My Parents has been acclaimed since its September release, but is it good enough to steer their post-rock style in a new direction?
Intro song “Legend” is evidently a very epic and strong track. The progressions sound very natural overall, and it’s easy to get caught up in the piece’s intensity.
Although minor, it’s difficult to shake the fact that the melody in the second half is extraordinarily similar to that in “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, leading to the thought that the song would be that of a symphonic cover to the classic.
An interesting contrast to Mono’s previous releases is the major lack of prominence of percussion, leading to the overall album focusing on guitar effects, abstract instruments and strings to produce the ethereal nature of the record.
All the tracks feels similar to one another, making this album more of one large piece than individual portions.
For My Parents is a very enjoyable album, and one to be proud of, but it lacks a significant change in style to the majority of Mono’s releases.
