Cock rock sans cock
Lennon Murphy would be pretty cool if only Youjeen weren’t around.
On her debut album 5:30 Saturday Morning, Lennon stabs a territorial flag on the male-dominated metallic jock rock of Limp Bizkit, Alien Ant Farm and Korn.
And like her Korean-born counterpart in Japan, Lennon could pretty much use Fred Durst to mop the floor.
Growly, buzzsaw guitars, creepy synthesizer effects, larger-than-life drumming — all the hallmarks for a Vans Warped Tour band are never in short supply on 5:30 Saturday Morning.
“Mommy’s in the closet finding God,” Lennon coos in the opening lines of “Property of Goatfucker”. “I’m on my knees finding you.” Once she’s established that kind of sentiment, ignoring the rest of the album is difficult at best.
Lennon is a powerful-enough singer, able to belt out a chorus when the guitars crash in, able to draw back when the strings and keyboards take over.
And while she’s got more than enough fury to spread over 12 tracks, she’s no screamer. Before Youjeen, that would have been all fine and good. After Youjeen, Lennon comes across as, well, relatively tame.
But Lennon is far more capable of just ranting at fakes, manipulators and liars.
Toward the middle of the album, lilting compound rhythms on “I Hear” and “Thank You” provide a nice contrast from the bombast that started things off.
On “Asking You”, Lennon indulges in power balladry that never comes across as false, while the title track concludes the album with only Lennon and a piano.
5:30 Saturday Morning is, as the saying goes in music criticism circles, an impressive debut. If you can’t afford to spend $30-plus tracking down Youjeen, settle for spending $10 on Lennon.