Album Review: Mono - For My Parents

Japanese post-rock titans Mono are back with album number six and all you need to know about the record is pretty well explained in the title. Not only does For My Parents' disarmingly sweet name serve as the album's de facto dedication, it also indicates the type of situations where the album might be most suitable. Essentially, For My Parents sounds like dinner party music for stoners and intellectuals, something to be vibed on alone just as much as it can be put on when you invite your folks – who probably wouldn't be able to handle your Godspeed records – over.

...Parents sees the four-piece reunite with members of New York's The Wordless Music Orchestra, with whom they collaborated on 2010's self-explanatory Holy Ground: NYC Live With The Wordless Music Orchestra, to create an album of new compositions instead of giving their older material orchestral makeovers, as they did for Holy Ground. These orchestral elements significantly heighten and change the band's approach to their music. Where their earlier Steve Albini-produced records tended to veer towards dissonance, For My Parents sees Mono focused on the melodic opportunities provided by their orchestral accompaniment, and has the band artfully working towards crescendos and successfully managing the much more robust dynamic available. 

Mono's records have always had a narrative quality to them. They flow together like wordless stories, and the varied instrumentation featured on For My Parents means the band have a much greater vocabulary with which to tell their story. As a result, the songs on For My Parents flow together as a single, lush sonic dreamscape – a floating, ethereal piece of music that you, and your parents, can enjoy.