Welcome to the Monkey House Review

Welcome to the Monkey House is the second release from talking head Joe Scarborough. Using his last name as the name of his band, Scarborough only seems to be warming up. His debut EP, Mystified, was released at the end of June in 2017. Welcome to the Monkey House is a continuation of the late 1990s, early 2000s sound Scarborough cultivated on his debut.

This EP has a quite a few political over tones. The album art is a mash up of bombers, the White House, and imagery that should have stayed in a Rage Against The Machine video. The title track and opening track of the EP is an ode to the Trump White House. Which fits with how the Morning Joe host turned alt rocker feels toward this administration. This isn’t an explicitly anti Trump or anti-government EP, but it feels like he is shit talking someone but trying to be nonspecific at the same time.

Once you listen through the opening song, the rest of the EP is pretty much straight forward, generic alt rock that sounds like it would fit in 20 years ago. Probably the strongest song on Welcome to the Monkey House is “When Will You Go.” The instrumental has a mellow vibe to it, but Joe’s lyrics paint a bitter picture about a girl that he has no good feelings for. It is an odd mix of feeling the urge to dance and be a little sad at the same time. To quote Sing Street, “It’s happy sad.”

The weakest song on the album is “Party Line.” It feels like a place holder between the second and last song. The song opens with an acapella piece before the rest of the song begins. The acapella/choral motif stays throughout the whole song. The song just doesn’t seem to fit with the other three on Welcome to the Monkey House.

The end of Welcome to the Monkey House just kind of happens. “Catch Me If You Can” closes out the EP with no grandiosity. It leaves the listener wanting more. Something that ties everything up in a nice bow.

Overall, Welcome to the Monkey House is a decent indie/alt rock EP. It’s something interesting to checkout. If not for the music, it has the novelty of a former congressman, current MSNBC host taking a shot at a music career. It is worth a stream just to check out.