Album Review: MONO – Snowdrop (Temporary Residence)

Japanese post-rock legends MONO will release their new album ’Snowdrop’ on June 12th, 2026, via Temporary Residence. This is the band’s first album made with Brad Wood (Touché Amore, The Smashing Pumpkins), following the passing of longtime collaborator and friend, Steve Albini.

This album is steeped in the emotion of the loss MONO have suffered, but rather than wallow, MONO have chosen to celebrate instead. Celebrate and appreciate a life well-spent with a dear friend and how heartbreak can lead to gratitude. Smile, even if it’s hard.

I don’t know if I can put into words the depth of feeling that this album has, but I’m going to try, and all because I love it so much. This truly is a special record, dare I say, one of a kind and no matter how many times I hear it (it’s been a lot already), its impact isn’t diminished, it’s only heightened. MONO have taken grief and pain and poured it into something so powerful that it astounds and all because it doesn’t come from a melancholic place. Sure, it has melancholic moments and touches, but at its core, it’s warm and comforting, and I’ve never experienced an album that expresses this so well.

Eight of the most staggering examples of cinematic post rock (they are joined by a 10-piece orchestra and 8-piece choir too) that will leave you breathless.

Where to even start? The beginning makes sense, but it’s hard to think of this album as something that has a beginning or an end. It’s eternity and infinity, shifting and shimmering, all so it can transport the listener to a whole different state of mind. To look, think, and feel things in a different way.

Something like the title track spends a few minutes softening the mind, only to increase the dramatic pressure as it goes on, while retaining a deep subtly that is so effective. At least until we reach the last few minutes. Then there is Winter Daphne, an exciting effort with strong experimental touches and a grand cinematic latter portion that lingers long after. Before Gerbera delivers a moving, beautiful, and smile-inducing piece of music that is up there as one of my favourite songs of the year, if not the decade.

As I said before, breathless, and then along comes Statice, Hedera, and Shion to deliver some of the most vibrantly colourful, emotionally wrought, and captivatingly charming music. Music that rises way above its genre limitations to be something so much more and with the clarity that shows just how much love and care went into it from all areas.

That’s why something like Bells of Ireland is so impressive. Creating a strong sense of melancholy with just a piano and a violin but cleverly changing the tone and transforming the track into something uplifting. It’s all about the orchestra, and while I don’t want to just repeat myself here, there’s simply no other way to describe it but to say it’s utterly gorgeous and downright hypnotic.

All things come to an end though and MONO leave us with one last glorious effort called Farewell to Spring. I have no words, save to say that I’m not embarrassed to admit I cried a bit at the end.

The album of the year. The best thing I’ve heard since the last time MONO released something. This music has had one hell of an effect on me, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget that.

MONO – Snowdrop Track Listing:

1. Snowdrop
2. Winter Daphne
3. Gerbera
4. Statice
5. Hedera
6. Shion
7. Bells of Ireland
8. Farewell to Spring

Links

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