Album Review: Shoun Shoun – Monsters & Heroes (Self Released)

Bristol-based experimental rock four-piece Shoun Shoun are set to release their debut album ‘Monsters & Heroes’ on January 28th 2022.

Experimental is a wide-ranging word that can be used to describe a lot of modern music. A word that is over-used and not always an apt description for what you’re hearing. Just because something is unusual or blends genres in a different way, doesn’t make it experimental.

So, what can be called experimental? This can. Monsters & Heroes can. Shoun Shoun can.

A 9-track trippy blend of psychedelia, garage rock, dream pop and post-punk, Monsters & Heroes needs time. Time to spread its ethereal tentacles throughout the mind, body and soul. It’s giving it that time that makes what you’re hearing all the more special.

Though that’s not to say it doesn’t have impact on first listen. It’s so uniquely strange that some impact would be impossible. It’s just through multiple listens that impact grows and grows.

From the dreaminess and coarse bursts of Did I Play Games, to the punkier and danceable groove of Much Sweeter, to the evocative and monotone melody of Sway with Me, to the unhinged rhythm of Stuck. The first half of the album is an injection of eccentricity that is sure to keep all listening on, if just to hear what new madness Shoun Shoun can unleash.

There’s so much more to come but first, we get the moodiest and most abrasive sounding track on the album with Follow Me. A track with depths that rumble and grumble, echoing throughout the skull and creating a feeling of discomfort.

There’s no denying that Monsters & Heroes is a challenging listen and further proof of that is the psychedelic monstrosity that is Toxic. Before My Daughter takes a much more melodic rock-based route with some great bass rhythm and catchy vocals. A track with a bit more radio-friendliness to it.

Whereas Refresh & Replay seems designed to enhance the sense that you might have accidently swallowed a whole bunch of psychedelics.

It’s all the more interesting, that following that, the finale of Schwing Mit Mir is such a melodramatic sounding effort. A low-tempo and droning first half reaches a treacherous eruption of post-clanging and banging before switching back again and fading away.

It doesn’t get anymore experimental than this.

Shoun Shoun – Monsters & Heroes Full Track Listing:

1. Did I Play Games
2. Much Sweeter
3. Sway with Me
4. Stuck
5. Follow Me
6. Toxic
7. My Daughter
8. Refresh & Replay
9. Schwing Mit Mir

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