A Nightmare of a Fairytale; DJ turned Band’s Fable Is a Mixed Bag

Mt. Sims is the stage name for DJ/Performance artist Matthew Sims who was originally from LA but has since surgically transplanted himself to Berlin. Mt. Sims brings forth their third release which stumbles very blindly into the dark realm of Euro Electro-pop as evidence that if an artist can fake a foreign accent and move to a different country they may achieve greater recognition for they’re craft. And if art truly imitated environment then Mt. Sims would sound like a twisted hybrid of KMFDM and The Cure - but they don’t, and somewhere in route to that party they recorded Happily Ever After.

Although the album is mixed and produced with some sophistication most of the songs are hit and generally miss. The least offensive of the bunch is the brooding and melodically driven ‘Love’s Revenge’, which delivers unyielding hooks of obsession and isolation. Unfortunately, it is one of the few lyrically sound tracks. Often times feeling contrived (‘The Bitten Bite Back’), the lyrics end up over extended or ridiculous (‘Hotwater/Coldblood’) and the whole album borders on “is this guy serious” or “is this a spin off of Reggie and the Full Effect?” Like an adolescent prank the record shows signs of ingenuity and greatness but falls shy of the mark do to an overall monotone, melodic frolic through even more mediocre dark wave disco beats and synthesized instruments. All of which are then showered with bursts of lyrical bizarre-o. If the demographic for this album is teenage Goth kid from Iowa - it will sell millions, well, thousands at least.

Happily Ever After has the “feel” of performance art and lacks an over all genuineness. Make no mistake - there is something creative about what Mt. Sims is trying to do. However, lost inside this originality are disparate themes that have been delivered in a cleaner, crisper less fickle manner. Happily Ever After just falls flat in too many departments to be taken for what it wants to be -a deeper, darker exploration into petty 80’s synth-pop, leaving the listener stranded on high atop mount of crap throw-back music.

John Niederkorn