Ramona Falls: "Salt Sack"

Menomena’s splintered nature and relatively unconventional, meticulously democratic approach to song composition is a strange thing. Interviews allude to the fact that their songwriting process is rife with disagreements and moments in which any one member’s ideas simply don’t work with the others’. Fortunately, rather than opting to kill each other or break up, Menomena’s fragmentation manifests itself in consistently impressive solo projects. Danny Seim’s Lackthereof material consistently shines a sparer, more intimate light on his contributions to his band; now it’s Brent Knopf’s turn to show us what he wasn’t able to sell his band on. It’s sounding tremendous.

“Salt Sack” sounds, at least superficially, like Menomena material in the same way that the last two Lackthereof albums do. The basic components (drums, guitar, vocals) are there, and Knopf’s voice is immediately present. Whereas Seim shoots for a much more minimal approach to his non-band compositions, however, Knopf shows an aversion to negative space, filling every moment with additional instrumentation—minor-key strings and horns abound, as does Knopf’s surprisingly distinct piano work, which shows up in the bridge—that brings the track to a sudden, swollen conclusion. It’s not as dense or as busy as Menomena’s three guys playing at least nine instruments approach but it’s certainly more chamber-pop than acoustic singer-songwriter stuff.

Furthermore, like most of Friend and Foe (2007), this song is probably about betrayal and uncertainty. “I found a strength, a will, a hate I couldn’t pacify,” Knopf sings and such sentiment atop the song’s darker arrangement, as opposed to Menomena’s chaos and ambivalence, gets the point across almost immediately: dude sounds angry. If nothing else this edge helps “Salt Sack” come off quite compellingly and so Intuit, its accompanying full-length, would seem to have huge potential.