Godzillionaire – Diminishing Returns
Release Date: 17th January 2025
Label: Ripple Music
Bandcamp
Genre: Stoner Rock, Heavy Rock, Psych Rock.
FFO: Brant Bjork Trio, Fu Manchu, Paw, QoTSA.
Review By: Paul Cairney
Fronted by Mark Hennessey, vocalist of the grunge band Paw, Godzillionaire are a hard-rock band from Kansas and Diminishing Returns is 2nd album, coming 4 years after their debut full length.
This is an album that has no great theme nor grandiose intent, instead Diminishing Returns is an album described as being ‘rooted in human experience’. Perhaps it is this, underplayed, thematic delivery that helps the album rumble along like enjoying an afternoon with a close friend at the pub.
Godzillionaire have not released an album with massive, bombastic tracks. Songs like the album opener, ‘Drowning all Night’ shakes your hand before Hennessey settles in to tell you a story. As he does, the band, including Ben White (guitar), Michael Dye (bass), and Cody Romaine (drums) jam away with a sense of freedom in the background. It is a generous opening track in that it sounds like it is for you alone.
This is a theme that continues through an album that never settles for anything less than good tracks. Some are very listenable, ‘Spin up Spin Down’ is as much of a rollercoaster as you will get on Diminishing Returns.
Throughout the 8 tracks on offer, there is a magical tone in the guitar that isn’t quite stoner fuzz, but isn’t quite standard. Some tracks have minimal riffs, and this is surprisingly pleasing, as the rhythm section plough along in the background, allowing the overall track to envelop you into a place of comfort and safety.
This, perhaps, is also the biggest challenge of the album. Although not lyrically safe, nothing about Diminishing Returns really demands your attention. It sounds ‘nice’, it is incredibly well played, and the band meld together excellently. The vocals in some tracks are an absolute joy, but the album just never really stretches the listener.
That said, it is not an album of diminishing returns, and is well worth a listen when you want to relax.
(3.5 / 5)
