About

A TAV Essential Listening Album.

“We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves is the third album by American lo-fi musician John Maus, released on June 27, 2011. Its title is derived from French philosopher Alain Badiou's "Fifteen Theses on Contemporary Art". Maus said that he wrote the album in "search for the perfect pop song". Upon release, the album was met with generally favorable reviews, a contrast from the reception of Maus' earlier work. Three singles were issued from the album: "Quantum Leap", "Believer" and "Hey Moon".” – Wiki

“We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves, his latest full-length, is the most vibrant and toothsome expression of Maus' pursuits yet. He keeps his vocals awash in gothic reverb and echo-driven effects, blurring the lines between what he's saying and emoting. Sometimes, as on "Cop Killer", a Jan Hammer-indebted number on which Maus sings over an iced bed of keys, the results are outlandish and oddly funny at the same time, in the way that certain scenes in David Lynch films can leap from chilling to comically exaggerated…

… Sonically, Maus works a minimal, primitive setup: sputtering drum machines and an arsenal of 1980s-vintage synth presets undercut his lyrics just as much as those exaggerated, often grotesque vocal turns do. Sometimes, these songs seem to exist solely to pose questions: Top 40 cheese or ironic cool? High-brow or low-brow? Honesty or posturing? Artifice or reality? But what makes We Must Become his finest full-length yet is how fluidly he communicates it all by foregrounding melody. On "Keep Pushing On", Maus' monastic, cellar-level singing lends the song the feel of a Gregorian chant-led exercise tape. Though the vocals and basslines on arpeggiated fever dream "Quantum Leap" mirror Joy Division's to an almost cartoonish degree, you still get a good sense of Maus' persona in the music. There's a genuine, almost maniacal sense of glee in the way he seems to approach each turn.” – Pitchfork

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