A Review of the Album ``View-Monster'' by Lemon Demon

Under review is another album of music I've liked, available for listening and purchase on Bandcamp:
https://lemondemon.bandcamp.com/album/view-monster

I'd long known Lemon Demon for its most popular song, ``The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny'',
and no others.  I was surprised to find the band on Bandcamp, and at the age of this album.  None of
these songs were familiar to me beforehand, and I've found the majority of them to be quite a treat.
The variety of instruments in this album is very hard for me to describe, but so delightful to hear.

The album entries follow ordered by my preference, their names, their durations, and album ordering:

                           Bill Watterson 03:47 15
>                             The Machine 05:24 14
=                    Amnesia Was Her Name 04:27 2
=                           The Afternoon 03:19 9
=                             Knife Fight 04:17 6
=                       Being a Rock Star 02:13 11
>                              Marketland 04:57 4
=                               The Ocean 03:52 8
=                                Gadzooks 02:55 5
>                The Satirist's Love Song 02:08 13
>                      Spring Heeled Jack 02:42 10
> The Only House That's Not On Fire (Yet) 05:36 7
>                         Ask For Nothing 03:29 12
>                       Something Glowing 05:34 16
>                            Kaleidoskull 03:18 1
>          The Man In Stripes and Glasses 02:39 3

The first track begins with simple instruments playing a simple melody; unlike the other songs, this
track entirely lacks vocals.  It serves as a pleasant opening to the album, but I can't say it holds
much of a special place otherwise, and I don't usually listen to it at all when enjoying the others.
The song grows more complex as more instruments are added, I believe even kazoos.  The final quarter
has the song die down into something different, using nice electronic instruments I won't attempt to
identify; the song subtly segues into the next track, but this isn't needed for enjoying the second.

That second track is a very creative tale of a man with amnesia talking about his love, with cliched
lines taking on a different meaning in light of his memory loss.  The lyrics are scrambled gradually
as the song progresses.  The primary instrument, electronic in nature, I can't identify, but perhaps
a guitar with some manner of modification.  This song is one amusing to forget in part and then hear
again, although it's very memorable.  While a delightful melody, the lyrics completely overshadow it
in importance.  The last twenty-seven seconds become nonsense which again segue into the next track.

The third track is unlike the second because its instruments overshadow the lyrics, which are mostly
nonsense.  Nonetheless, the track is purposefully confusing in all respects, with a song that varies
schizophrenically in melody, tempo, instruments, and all other respects I can think to mention.  The
final segment is experimental announcements of voice effects, followed by such, and grating to hear.

The fourth track concerns a marketplace, and is the manner of song in which the lyrics rhyme through
listing whatever is most convenient.  The song is an obvious criticism of markets and merchants.  In
this simple song I find little surprising or of particular note; it sits in the middle, qualitywise.

The fifth track revolves around its titular word, and several exclamations of similar effects, using
increasingly silly options as the song progresses; the song is naught more than an empty critique of
society with a good tune; despite this, it's fun to hear how the song has grown more true over time.

The sixth track maintains a consistent theme throughout the majority of its play and is the first in
the album to introduce a second singer.  The fast tempo and enunciation is well-suited to a humorous
song about a knife fight; the lyrics are repetitive, with a great deal of varied insults and ways to
describe stabbing, but they're not annoying by any means.  Despite its spot among my favourite songs
in this album, the final fifth or so has an entirely different character, taking a reprieve from all
instruments to play out some of its story, then adopting a sickeningly-sweet tone purely for a joke.

The seventh track starts out in an interesting way before taking on a more traditional sound using a
traditional guitar.  The song's chorus begins with its title, and I believe it to be another song to
which the lyrics are nonsensical.  There's perhaps meaning in the lyrics, in this song that at first
pretends to be a more traditional manner of song, but I've not bothered to disentangle it and won't.
The song even explains that there's no greater meaning therein.  Regardless, this song is enjoyable.

The eighth track concerns sailing, with an upbeat tune.  This is yet another track whose meaning may
be nonexistent, but it's much more coherent than the others, and their delivery is perfect.  Perhaps
the lyrics and instruments be equally important in this song with an unusually balanced composition.

The ninth track is another in which the instruments overshadow the lyrics, whose concern is fear and
which manage to be noticeably repetitive in an amusing way, despite their purposefully odd delivery.
This is another song I find very difficult to describe in any meaningful way.  Its cheerful nature's
directly contrasted by its lyrics, implying all manner of horrible fates and mysterious designs, but
these may be directed towards childish emotions.  Its tone in sum is one of a happy and upbeat song.

The tenth track is a short, simple, and gentle song about its titular killer monster, told similarly
to how one may attempt to sing a campfire story, perhaps.  This is another mostly unremarkable song.

The eleventh track has a tune very similar to the fourth, and is that preferable track between them;
it's also much shorter, and avoids wearing out its welcome as that other may towards some listeners.
The song is a simple mockery of itself; the tune is very catchy, brief, and scathing towards others.

The twelfth track is another that's difficult to describe.  It's another song sounding happy telling
a perhaps less happy story against gentle instruments with a happy singer telling a tale of futility
and trying regardless; this is in all likelihood the most sickeningly-sweet song in the whole album.

The thirteenth track is another parody of love songs, in which the singer describes how that love he
shares is naught more than a joke that his other half didn't understand; there's little else to say.

The fourteenth track begins with what sounds like a segment from a television program or a film: one
man asks another, presumably some scientific type, about his machine which does nothing.  All lyrics
in this song concern a man who builds his giant machine which also does nothing, consuming his life.
Rhymewise, the song resembles that fourth track, but the lyrics in this track are much more refined,
and much smoother in all respects.  Musically, this track brings to mind the eighth or ninth tracks,
perhaps.  As in other tracks, the chorus is delivered in a purposefully odd way, but it sounds good.

The fifteenth track is not quite a love song, about the cartoonist for ``Calvin and Hobbes'' and his
schizophrenic stalker.  Once one understands the identity in the title, it tells a delightfully sick
story with a correspondingly sick tune.  If one only hears one song from this album, let it be this.

The sixteenth and final track comes across to me as one of the odder tracks in the album.  It's just
a story about an ominous entity haunting someone, again with a basic musical setup that would belong
to a much more upbeat kind of song, although one that shifts between that and disturbing sounds more
frequently than the other tracks; by the end, the singer's voice has become a cacophony with itself.
I believe the entity to be Lovecraftian in nature in particular; it gives that feeling, nonetheless.
As with most other songs in the album, the track, and the album itself, die out with strange sounds.

This fun album takes itself seriously in few ways, none particularly significant.  While the album's
designed to be enjoyed with gapless playback, it matters not, for so many songs end in nonsense that
may be unpleasant to hear after the main song, and many of the best songs directly follow each other
not.  I primarily listen to my favourite tracks, and no others, when enjoying the album, but nothing
is bad.  This experimental album is much better than what passes for an experimental album nowadays.
This odd album was too difficult for me to review to my satisfaction, but I can easily recommend it.
.