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On Wax: Monster Magnet, Last Patrol

Maybe it’s not the deepest critique I’ve ever made, but what’s not to like here? Monster Magnet‘s Last Patrol (review here) is one of 2013’s best albums, so to have it arrive in a limited 2LP package geared specifically toward collectors and the types of fans who’d chase down such an artifact is all the better. Pressed by Napalm Records in what the back of the gatefold refers to in all-caps as “Strictly Limited Edition,” Last Patrol comprises two subtle magenta swirl platters and on vinyl feels even more like the sonic event it is in the band’s catalog.

Prior to its release, Last Patrolwas billed as a psychedelic return to form, and in a couple of the extended jammers — the title-track and “End of Time” — it certainly taps into some of the long-running New Jersey stoner innovators’ early Hawkwind fetishizing, but the prevailing sensibility is more brooding, and there are moments where that psych tendency crashes hard into a heavy reality, whether that arrives in the sarcasm rooted in the lyrics of “Paradise” or the underlying scathe of “Mindless Ones,” which in itself has some measure of swirl but still drives like heavy rocking Monster Magnet at their most unbridled.

The limited version of Last Patrol maintains the atmosphere overall, but the listening experience is far different. Spreading the nine tracks of the album proper and the two bonus cuts, “Strobe Light Beatdown” and “One Dead Moon” over the course of two LPs means that each of the four sides save for side A only has three songs on it. By the time opener “I Live behind the Clouds” and the following “Last Patrol” are done, it’s time to get up and flip the record, and where in a more linear mode of listening, one might just get carried off by the flow of one song into the next, here the process is more interactive. “Three Kingfishers” into “Paradise” into “Hallelujah” is a quick listen.

If there’s a downside, it’s that the changing of LPs takes away from the smoothness of some of the song-to-song transitions, like “Hallelujah” into “Mindless Ones” and “End of Time” into “Stay Tuned,” but the tradeoff is you’re a more conscious audience. Last Patrol in this form doesn’t let you get so swept away by psychedelic hypnosis that  you miss a minute of it, and ultimately this serves the tracks in a different way than either the CD, digital (or presumably) the single LP versions possibly could. The inclusion of bonus material, whether it’s the more upbeat “Strobe Light Beatdown” or the building “One Dead Moon” further distinguishes this version, and for fans who’d take on a package like this one, these are songs well worth hearing.

Casual Monster Magnet fans probably won’t feel the need to dig in on this level, but this doesn’t seem to be geared toward that audience anyway. It’s for the Monster Magnet fan who’s waited a long time for the band to put out something like Last Patrol — more complex in its personality than anything they’ve done in the last decade — and as I count myself among that number, I’m happy to be able to dig into a package that’s a gorgeous and honest as the album itself. To see the John Sumrow art alone in this iteration, I’d feel compelled to frame it if I didn’t want to keep listening so much.

Monster Magnet, Last Patrol (2013)

Monster Magnet’s website

Napalm Records store

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One Response to “On Wax: Monster Magnet, Last Patrol

  1. goAt says:

    This record is such a trip-so easy for the listener to get lost in it…on vinyl WOULD be a totally different kinda thing, eh?

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