If the Beach Boys come back to musical earth as a robot super roadster, the name for that car tearing up the coast will likely be called a Mina May.
Sure, there are 60′s surf rock elements to this record, that is, until the guitars come up against a wall of electric organs and complex rhythm signatures which perplex without alienating the melody. Highly distinct vocals, solid songwriting (because if you’re going to borrow your title from a famous writer, you’d best be able to deliver intelligent lyrics), and an overall sound that registers high on the hair-raising galvanic skin response meter without falling into the cliched snares too many bands fall into by overreaching for that melodramatic hook or epic crescendo. Despite the strength of each part, there’s no singularly dominant element in Mina May but rather a sonic ecosystem that would die in the absence of any one of its parts, nowhere more evident than in the title track. If France is looking for an original, new-wave national treasure they may finally have it.
