Music review – Bend Sinister: On My Mind EP

Bend Sinister
On My Mind EP
File Under Music

Has there really never been a TV ad featuring a Bend Sinister song? My admittedly weak Google-fu hasn't turned anything up, but that seems hard to believe. These guys have been going at the band thing a while, and their music seems tailor-made for a Telus commercial or anything else below Apple commercials on the “makes bands’ careers” ladder.

I’ll be the first to admit that this record found me in a bad mood, one brought on by finishing a paper at 5 a.m. the day I wrote this, and missing three meals in the process. Hence, the ad thing is my polite-ish way of saying On My Mind isn't terribly interesting. It seems heavy on the hooks, but somehow fails to make an impression. The warm Wurlitzer keys, falsetto bits, and general jaunty-ness strongly recall Supertramp, minus the charm that makes songs like “Bloody Well Right” such solid karaoke picks. The “Bland Sinister” joke I deleted from an earlier draft of this sort of sums it all up.

But to be fair, “Got You On My Mind” becomes a great song if you imagine it playing under shots of silly little capuchin monkeys or salamanders.

Mason Pitzel
Production Manager