Rebel ACA & French Monkey Wrench
Sunday’s Cool
(Buttercuts Records)

Big sweeping synth strings rolling into a gritty snare beat and a rap about culture inform “John Wayne,” the opener of Rebel ACA & French Monkey Wrench’s new album, Sunday’s Cool. Mixing left field, hip hop, and rock into a heady mix, Rebel ACA (singing, playing some keys and manning the occasional beat) with French Monkey Wrench (sometimes singing, playing keys, guitar, bass and beats) present 13 quite melodic rap tunes with a goodly layering of instruments.

For instance, the chorus in “African James Bond,” is quite singable, “Jolly Little Tune” presents subtly substantive lyrics with a plucky bass and guitar fronting the beat, and the “Interludes,” of which there are three, pretty much mine a ‘plinky’ melody while presenting quick little jazzy respites (complete with horn sounds) and some cool piano.

The neat stomping stunted beat of “Gold Star,” presents the best of both the rapping and singing abilities of this pair. It gets real funky during the choruses. Great stuff!

Big scary synth key single notes lie underneath the heavy rap of the closing track, “Living in a Mad World (Lil’ Rossco Remix)” featuring Lily and Tracy McVeigh. It’s a decent tune, maybe leaden down a bit with too many cooks in the kitchen, but even a lackluster ending can’t take away from the rest of Rebel ACA & French Monkey Wrench’s, Sunday’s Cool, which is very cool indeed.