Emotionalpunk.com
Media Review
Music Quality: 9.5
Production: 9.0
Originality: 9.0
Tracklisting
2. German Motor Car
3. Broadripple Is Burning
4. Holy Cow!
5. Cold, Kind And Lemon Eyes
6. Hello, Vagina
7. As Tall As Cliffs
8. Real Naked Girls
9. Pages Written On The Wall
10. The Shivers (I've Got 'Em)
11. The Ocean (Is Bleeding Salt)
12. Hip, Hip Hooray
After a three year break between releases, Margot And The Nuclear So And So's come roaring back with not one but two releases: Animal! and Not Animal. Animal!, which features a different song listing, is the band's version while Not Animal is the label's (Epic) choice songs from the sessions (for more on the background story, see the Animal! review).
Not Animal begins with the new tune 'A Children's Crusade On Acid.' The song begins with a slow drum beat over an electronic loop which successively builds before crashing into a large drum cadence in the middle backed by scratchy guitars. The song gives off a very ominous feel aided by lyrics such as "the children lose their minds/in such uncertain times." The drumming and overall mood gets lighter on 'German Motor Car' before going into two songs that messageboarders might recognize from the band's Queensize demos which surfaced around 2006. While fan favorite 'Broadripple Is Burning' and 'Holy Cow!' haven’t gone through major changes, the band still displays their growth with small additions such as the tinkling of piano keys and lap steel in the background with a heavier guitar sound courtesy of Andy Fry which helps to give 'Holy Cow!' a more dynamic sound.
The band truly starts to show their progression in 'Hello Vagina.' The song starts off with a xylophone and is carried by a bass-heavy beat through the first verse before coming in with a large chorus led by singer Richard Edwards' exasperated vocals. The band throws a curve ball in the bridge with the surf rock-esque guitars before closing the song out the way they began. I immediately fell in love with 'Real Naked Girls' when I heard a live version of it a few years back and was overjoyed to hear a fully realized version filled with angelic backing vocals and an almost children's song vibe. 'Pages Written On A Wall' is another very old song dredged up and reworked incorporating the band's increased use of raunchier guitar sounds. After a slow start the song really throws everything into overdrive with huge drums, ferocious horns and the driving bass of Tyler Watkins accented by Emily Watkins' keyboards before crashing under its own weight at the end. 'The Shivers (I've Got 'Em), which exudes just that with its gloomy groove and lyrics such as "I caught a bad case of the shivers/I caught a bad case of the blues/I’ve got some bad news for you."
The album closes out with two more older demos bringing the total count to six on the album. While they do get a Margot makeover, and some fans may be happy to hear cleaned up version of these songs, it make sense that the band left most of them off Animal! due to them being dated. For this reason the newer songs tend to stick out at times and create a rift making it difficult to get a sense of the album as a whole. This is coming from someone who is perhaps a little too obsessed with the band and for the more casual listen should not even be noticeable. Putting those feelings aside, the album still flows well and is a great collection of songs by a band that displays they can make something fresh out of scraps from the past.