Excerpt: “Monocle play spacy, poppy electronic music fronted by the delightful Sunny Kim. They are a bit like Stereolab and boast truly memorable tunes… Monocle’s debut is a lovely record that should appeal to many.”
Excerpt: “Outer Sunset presents eleven polished samplings of radiant effervescence from New York-based quintet Monocle… The bossa-fueled pop of ‘Emmanuelle’ opens the album euphorically… In ‘Gaspard’, Kim’s heavenly voice rides a wave of squalling guitars… the band flirts with guitar freakout territory during the astral sonics of ‘Music of Space’… All things considered, a gloriously entertaining and accomplished debut.”
Excerpt: “New York’s Monocle take out the boring bits and go straight for the jugular with their own brand of space-age pop. The virtually flawless ‘Gaspard’, ‘Green Future’ and ‘Music Of Space’ each boast euphoric choruses bolstered by strong female vocals. Even when they do experiment they pull it off – ‘Agent Earle’ begins in typical retro-futurist style but then twists into a shimmering wall of synths and glacial atmospheres… Outer Sunset is definitely one of the most addictive alternative pop albums I’ve heard in recent years.”
Excerpt: “Monocle is a dreamy synth-pop band from New York that has nailed a sound that is airy and unrestrained one moment and dark and mildly claustrophobic the next… I seem to get lost in their songs. They’ll be sort of playing in the background and then suddenly my face will light up with the realization that “Air Phase”, for example, is simply amazing. “Wave Goodbye” is another standout… a totally accessible and brilliant pop song. How do they do that? Don’t know. Chalk it all up to an amazing chemistry I suppose… this is a very good release by an up and coming new band.”
