{"id":76503,"date":"2019-02-27T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=76503"},"modified":"2023-04-07T14:25:03","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T13:25:03","slug":"review-masked-intruder-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-masked-intruder-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Masked Intruder &#8211; III"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-76505\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/MI-III-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" title=\"\">Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it\u2019s Wisconsin\u2019s <strong>Masked Intruder<\/strong> returning with their inventively titled third album \u2018<em>III<\/em>\u2019. These four crime-fighting pop-punks never reveal their identities, preferring to operate under the monikers Red, Blue, Green and Yellow, the colour of their balaclavas. Yes, the whole thing is one great big gimmick, but there is no denying they write a catchy tune.<\/p>\n<p>A-la the Ramones, they present their pop-punk as teenage love songs with three chords and the occasional metal-style solo. It\u2019s all fairly juvenile but what they lack in toilet humour, they make up for in dubious crime references. Take the lyrics of \u2018<em>Not Fair<\/em>\u2019 which mixes together a refrain of <em>&#8220;If you\u2019ll be my girlfriend&#8221;<\/em> and <em>&#8220;Maybe we, could rob a bank or three&#8221;<\/em>, it\u2019s hardly deep, meaningful stuff, but that\u2019s part of its charm.<\/p>\n<p>Over the twelve songs it\u2019s surprising how many ways they can disguise the same formula with a riff here or there, like the bright and bouncy approach used on \u2018<em>Just So You Know<\/em>\u2019 or by switching the vocals to a soft croon with a smattering of doo-wop, like on \u2018<em>I\u2019ll Be Back Again Someday<\/em>\u2019. Yet, despite using Weezer as a touchstone, they certainly don\u2019t try anything you haven\u2019t heard before. It\u2019s all delightfully shallow. Even wearing a mask can\u2019t disguise that.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Masked Intruder &quot;All Of My Love&quot; (Official Music Video)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b01PaPmADOE?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This time around Less Than Jake bassist Roger Lima\u00a0handles production duties and under his tutelage, the guitars sound crunchier and far less claggy than on earlier releases. The vocals are more delicate, making for a bigger sound than even previous EP <em>\u2018Love and Other Crimes\u2019<\/em> and with such simple music, it makes a massive difference.<\/p>\n<p>So despite not pushing the genre, or even their sound, anywhere new, the record is one big sugary treat. From the moment the riff of \u2018<em>No Case<\/em>\u2019 explodes out of the gates, you know \u2018<em>III<\/em>\u2019 is peak <strong>Masked Intruder<\/strong>. Shallow, cheesy as hell and bags of fun.<\/p>\n<p>3\/5<\/p>\n<p>\u2018<em>III<\/em>&#8216; by <strong>Masked Intruder<\/strong> is released on 1st March on <strong>Pure Noise Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Masked Intruder<\/strong> links: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.maskedintruderband.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/maskedintruder\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/maskedintruder1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/maskedintruder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/maskedintruder.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Ian Kenworthy (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhisperingSand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@WhisperingSand<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;\u2018III\u2019 is peak Masked Intruder\u2026 shallow, cheesy as hell and bags of fun&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Words by Ian Kenworthy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":76505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5879,15621,7826,3318,66],"class_list":["post-76503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-reviews","tag-ian-kenworthy","tag-iii","tag-masked-intruder","tag-pure-noise-records"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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