Brooklyn's Monocle, on the face of it, would have a lot to overcome with their debut full-length -- it's not that their overall sound is terrible -- far from it -- and bandleader Rich Bennett has plenty to be proud of. In a weird way, their embrace of sounds and styles all slipping in and around the art/groove/easy listening continuum ranging from Martin Denny and the Free Design to Isabelle Antena and, perhaps inevitably, Stereolab and their many fellow travelers, more than anything almost dooms them to a context.
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