I've got to give it to her, Micachu completely caught me off guard with her first album, 'Jewellery.' The primary reason is: I didn't know this type of music existed. She has an interesting name, Micachu, which turns out to be a combination of her first name, Mica, and an instrument she built herself, the chu. The chu happens to be a modified guitar played with a hammer action, while she also built a bowed instrument out of a CD rack.
So this review so far has not talked at all about her music, as it takes a lot of introduction to describe her scattershot genius. Her brand of music is self described as pop, but may be better described as electro-bipolar-noise pop. I spent some time over the roughly eight times I have already listened to this album trying to find other acts to which could serve for comparison. The best I have come up with is to describe at least her first song 'Vulture' as a mix between Deerhoof time signatures, the off-tuned guitar style of Xiu Xiu, the voice of Lily Allen, mixed with the sound of dropping a piano twelve stories onto a dumpster filled with kittens. Her songs really pack that much into three minute pop gems.
Overall the album flows nicely, with relatively short songs and a runtime of only 31 minutes. My favorite part of the album is probably the first four songs, which start with the great 'Vulture,' followed by shorter, punk styled songs and freaky folk 'Eat Your Heart.' This song is a good example of Mica's lyrical stylings, because she repeats the title about twenty times. I would say that if you are looking for an emotional connection with an album, this is not the place to look. She does have somewhat of a moody ballad with 'Turn Me Well,' and my favorite line "When you get to me, you turn me well. I'm a tired soul.'
Micachu and the Shapes have put together a manic, noisy, 'pop' album with 'Jewellery.' This is the type of album, though, that most people will not get instantly. The song 'Calculator' is an example, because it took me at least five listens before I really like it because I had to disassociate it with the song it samples, 'Tequila.' Basically, this is not an album for everyone, but for those who like a challenging listen, eat dog eat.
