Timothy Monger

If you have a voice like Neil Sedaka's but no solo recording contract, what do you do? If you're Timothy Monger, you record an album called Summer Cherry Ghosts and self-release it as a free download on Bandcamp, while also selling the physical CD on the usual websites. (You can also buy it for $4.41 on eMusic, if you still have a subscription.)

Meanwhile, Monger is better known as one of the brothers who front the Great Lakes Myth Society, whose music is a bit more guitar-oriented, and in my opinion, not as good - and not free, either. Still, if you like this, you'll probably like the GLMS album Compass Rose Bouquet.

According to NOT LAME, Summer Cherry Ghosts is "a bewitching, unexpected pleasure a la Elliott Smith with a huge-helping of classic 80's, 90's and present-day XTC and even nod toward ELO." This is not especially accurate. Monger's songs are far sweeter and more pastoral than Elliott Smith's, and the only XTC album that might be brought to mind here is probably Mummer, and even then only the quieter bits. As for ELO, I just don't think so. This record sounds more like the Pernice Brothers or perhaps The Lilac Time (aka Stephen Duffy) than ELO, which is a compliment. But there's precious little of the lyrical irony and sometimes-darkness that those acts have, or that Smith had, and he also seems to lack the ability to occasionally turn it up and rock out that the late Will Owsley had - which is, I fear, not a compliment. He does, however, have a similar sense of tune-and-melody to Owsley, and comes fairly close in the hook-making department.

The most interesting songs here are actually buried in the middle of the track-list: "Metropark," "Crime on a Summer Day," and "The Margaret Letters," the latter especially with its nice touches of melodica and heavily-chorused guitar, are somewhat slower than the others, but nevertheless more memorable.

Monger chose tags like "folk pop," "nostalgia pop," and "summer folk pop" when he uploaded this album to Bandcamp, but "chamber pop" or "orchestral pop" would probably have suited him a lot better. Other than the song "Sunday Night Swing Dancing Lessons," there's very little about this album that's truly folksy - alt-rockers have been misusing that term for years now - but the reason for choosing it is probably valid, since there are no tracks here that will appeal to punks, metal-heads or hard-rockers.

Finally, as you can see by the cover art, Monger doesn't quite have the rock-star looks he might need to make it big nationally, if that's even possible anymore - especially if he continues to release material under his full name. The success of similar-looking guys (like Beck and the members of Death Cab For Cutie) is mostly an aberration. Unfortunately, if he switches to simply "Monger," people will assume he's a metal or hardcore act, and "T-Monger" obviously sound too hip-hoppish. (Still, it doesn't appear that either name has been taken.)



For a free download, this is a no-brainer for pastoral/chamber-pop fans. Hurry up before he decides to start charging money for it.

Points of Reference: Great Lakes Myth Society, Owsley, The Lilac Time, Neil Sedaka