MONEY - Suicide Songs

MONEY’s second album ‘Suicide Songs’ isn’t shy of stating its intentions early. From the album title, to the graphic cover art, to song titles that range from the bordering on ridiculous ‘You Look Like A Sad Painting On Both Sides Of The Sky’ to the bluntly bleak ‘Hopeless World’, the Manchester band aren’t afraid to give a lot away on a first impression.

First impressions shouldn’t count for everything though, even ones as vivid as these, and ‘Suicide Songs’ is often more hopeful (and even pleasant and jangly in corners) than they might suggest. ‘I’m Not Here’ is, indeed, lyrically dark, but delivered with a Britpop howl and plenty of pomp.

‘Night Came’, a nearly-nine-minute mess that sits in the middle of the record, tries to ruin any momentum gained so far though, with little to say across its unnecessary length. ‘I’ll Be The Night’, meanwhile, feels monumental, and the album’s biggest statement. It’s the moment in which the album reaches the anthemic status it has clearly intended for itself. Talk of “empires tumbling down” and being a “servant of the hour” still feel a little too grand and distant, but when things get personal (“I pray you’re never lonely / never empty, but cannot fathom the above.”), it hits a lot harder.