Reviewed by Aaron Ferris

"Planned parenthood makes Barbie dolls" is the tag line of "Barbie Dolls", a fast-paced track which could easily be mistaken for something like a children's Sunday school song until the album notes explain the theme of the song is vehemently opposing abortion and is in fact about a Nazi fiend who experimented on children. Readers of the reviews of previous do-it-yourself releases by American arch eccentric Bob Brown aka Moron will know Mr Brown is not an artist to be easily pigeonholed or indeed understood on first hearing. I don't think the writing is intentionally aimed at any particular musical style and seems to generally just depend on the prevailing mood at the time. On some occasions the vocals are almost spoken with little or next to no melody, then others shouted or whispered. There are shades of electro pop, '80s, punk, rock and some instrumentalism and together fuse into the style of "what was that?". An under-par home production, programmed percussion and often dodgy choice of effects don't make for comfortable listening. "Closer To You" and "Read It In A Letter", two songs originally released in the early '80s, are among the strongest tracks here. The worshipful "Radiation" and Charles Wesley's "Arise My Soul" provide more straight forward listening.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.