Rotten it may be to embody the one song people still remember due to its use in a hit film, I Monster has embraced it. They are right to do so with The Blue Wrath, a fantastic piece of music which will forever be tied to the masses of brainless street shufflers in Shaun of the Dead, not to mention the zombies which follow. What felt like a build towards some new project has fizzled out. Four singles in two years and nothing else. No suggestion, now, of following up their last album effort, A Dollop of HP. Take what you can get from the band at this point, then. They do not seem quite as ready as first thought for a new wave of songs but Return of the Blue Wrath, rather fairly, depends on the roaring success and continued relevancy of The Blue Wrath.
But give Return of the Blue Wrath a listen and realise I Monster is nowhere close to being ready for a new record. Almost note for note the same as The Blue Wrath but with a few filters thrown on top. Adding an extra couple of bells and whistles and hoping this is enough to provide a sequel is quite Hollywood for the group. Not in the flashy sense, but in the minimal changes for a cheap cash-in sense. A popular style but not one to win any friends with. Return of the Blue Wrath manages to remove the creepy, claustrophobic feeling of the searingly great first song and in its place is an electronic solo and half-hearted continuation of their most popular song. Life comes at you fast. Your favourite works and a band’s best work do not often overlap.
I Monster are still, it seems, not comfortable with the success of The Blue Wrath. A short remake of an already-established song sounds like a winner on paper. Every artist from U2 to Neil Young is trying this but the change comes with a reflection of the times. I Monster never evolved The Blue Wrath beyond anything other than an instrumentally fulfilling bit of fun. To expect any extra layer or new detail which adds to what little nuance the song already had when isolated from the redefining Shaun of the Dead imagery is folly. Never question the purpose of art starting from scratch. Beyond a voice announcing the return of the titular Blue Wrath, what more do I Monster add with this? There is no new perspective, no instrumental style which brings on a fundamental change for the song.
All it can do is prey on the memories you hold so dear of a song over twenty years old. Nostalgia is a cruel beast. It is how bands are now defined and few will ever break the mould with a contemporary cutting. For the few still wanting to hear from I Monster, their latest material is, at the very least, interesting. All Return of the Blue Wrath can do is revisit an old stomping ground. And yet when they find not much has changed, they still set about renovating. This is a song for the sake of it. For the few people who still have The Blue Wrath rattling around some forgotten playlist and are utterly desperate for it to have a different instrumental twist. Minimal changes for even smaller rewards.
