I’d never heard of John Maus before this album, and quite frankly, I wish I never had. If you told me beforehand that this was a post-punk, gothic inspired electronic album, I would have thought it to be awesome. However I went in with no idea of what it was, so one would assume that it couldn’t possibly disappoint. Well, you’d be wrong.
“ Pussy is not a matter of fact
Pussy is not a matter of fact
Pussy is not a matter of fact
Pussy is not a matter of fact”
— John Maus, ‘Matter of Fact’
The Album
We start off the record with some layered pad synths that remind of Disintegration, but with a funky 8-bit chiptune lead over top that sounds straight out of Super Mario Bros. but without the appeal of having a matching game to keep your attention away from the monotonous repetition of its ever-echoing melody.
The second track, “Quantum Leap”, throws us into a post-punk inspired bassline that’s well… more than just a little inspired. It’s a straight rip from Joy Division. The style of playing and tone match up almost too closely to some of Unkown Pleasures’ cuts. Meanwhile Maus’ vocals sound like Robert Smith doing an Ian Curtis impression.
By the third track you realize that we really do not move away from that The Cure “inspired” sound much at all on this album, which you think would be a good thing, right? The Cure are awesome! But Maus has absolutely no flavour to it. He’s like the ranch dressing of the genre. He’s the unseasoned chicken of the genre. He’s the cheese sandwich on plain white unbuttered bread with the crust cut off of the genre.
If you’re wondering if we get out of this boring soundscape at all in this record, the answer is no. The Joy Division type bass and plain-ass drum machines with a The Cure style lead over it continues throughout. The lyrics give no favours to the record either. “Down, down, down” Maus sings, which seems fitting, as that’s how my rating seems to be going with each track deeper I listen.
“Hey Moon” mildly surprised me. Wow a woman! Who would have thought he could manage to talk to one at all? There’s shades of Kavinsky-era electronic music here. I suppose we’re ripping off Nightcall now instead of Plainsong. More poorly chosen 8-bit synths that are completely out of place in the mix show themselves. They’re way too loud, and the tone is abhorrent. It sounds like someone was actually playing a video game in the studio during this session. Did the recording engineer have Sonic up while tracking this? The song carries on for far too long; it would have made a fun two and a half minute duet, but four and a half is just way too much.
“Keep Pushing On” has shades of Digitalism to my ears. There’s really not a single idea on this record that hasn’t been done before and done better by someone who knows what they were doing and likely didn’t take themselves so seriously. I feel like The Weeknd’s Dawn FM would end up sounding similar to this record over 10 years later, having taken from the same sources as inspiration, but sounding much better. Especially because he doesn’t sound like he’s doing a baddie and Curtis impression. It’s a reminder that being first doesn’t necessarily mean being best, (though Maus wasn’t really either here, considering the amount of “inspiration” present).
“The Crucifix” is a fun break in the action. I actually like the synths here and it’s short enough to keep me from being sick of the vocals. That’s about the most positive this record gets for me sadly.
“Head for the Country”’s lead synth is, get this, mixed way too loud once again, and overpowers everything. It’s not even a good sounding synth. The vocals are way too quiet and his performance indicates that he’s extremely confident in his voice but somehow almost sounds too confident in his lyrics. But we don’t get to hear much vocal action as its turned down and drowned out despite his obvious confidence for once. I want to hear the tonality of his voice and his bad Ian Curtis impression, as somehow it’s the most interesting thing here. Everything else is extremely derivative. Also, did he take that lead synth sound from Ghostbusters and just crank it up to fucking 11? What was that?
“Cop Killer”’s vocals sound inspired by Robert Smith once again. This really does sound like what The Weeknd would end up doing again just a few years later and would end up doing way better. The synths are super 80s inspired but in a 2010s kind of way, taking from his peers shamelessly again. I reiterate, if you’re going to take, at least make it interesting. Surface level lyrics that think they’re way deeper than they are is not an example of that, John.
By “Matter of Fact” I thought to myself “Are we almost done yet? My God, what a long half hour.” I don’t even have words to describe these god-awful incel-core lyrics. Just read them. By “We Can Breakthrough” you really get the sense that this is a man you would not want to meet in real life, as you just know he would smell like shit, while claiming that a “true artist” must never wash, so as to keep the creative juices flowing and intact!
Alright, let’s see how the final track, “Believer”, soun—-AAHHHHHH MY EARS! Somebody tell him to turn the lead synths down. It hurts. Seriously dude. I can’t help but think that if pioneers of electronic music and synthesisers like Giorgio Moroder and Wendy Carlos could see how this guy abuses these tools today that they would have never picked up an instrument, so as to save us from this buffoonery.
The incomprehensible lyrics I can only make out thanks to reading them imply John believes himself to be a misunderstood genius, a philosophical visionary, a dark believer in the now, who must censor himself to protect himself, his thoughts all too powerful and all-knowing for the simple minded who try to hide him away. In reality, he’s just a terrible poet with bad lyrics and worse inflections, ripped off sound landscapes, an air of pretentiousness, and one painfully mediocre album.
★★