I’ll cut to the chase: I’m deeply obsessed with this record. Melt-Banana has been awesome for a long time, but this record has MxBx going way past just being awesome and seizing a throne. 3+5 is so heavy, so intense, that when I heard it blast through my Skullcandy headphones, I was forced to get up and pace around the room, grinning like a fool. I considered thrusting open the front door and bursting out onto the street, letting out a giant “bleeyargh!” and taking off running.
Songs should always be a very intense, very short, 3 minutes or less, or an epic 8 minutes or longer. This album takes the former approach, cramming 9 songs into 24 minutes. Honestly, this album could not have gone on another minute, the world would have been set ablaze and the listeners’ hearts would explode. I started it over again immediately. And then immediately again.
Melt-Banana has always been oppressive music, not in the same way Khanate is, but in the way I imagine a full aerial assault would be. They are on the attack, and you are the target. This time, the music is uplifting and victorious, and it is the best they’ve ever made. It’s still a full aerial assault, but this time, the band is on your side. It’s a rallying cry. If you can’t join up with Melt-Banana after this, you are dead inside.
3+5 is unquestionably my favorite album of 2024, and that’s saying something, because this year has experienced quite a renaissance of music that is weird, heavy, and cool. This might be my favorite record of the post-pandemic era, that is, this depressing decade of the 2020s. Get your ears deep into this.
A Fool Speaks Loudest 