Dywayne Thomas Jr., aka MonoNeon, marches to his beat and can take any direction. I’ve seen him burn up the stage at Newport Jazz with a decibel-breaking, raucous performance. That same MonoNeon, though, as he did on his 2024 Quilted Stereo, delivers a batch of highly accessible songs on You Had Your Chance…Bad Attitude. In his own irreverent and thoroughly modern way, MonoNeon represents his hometown, Memphis, which has long embraced a confluence of genres. Both of these albums argue that we should take this fellow, who arrives on stage in a knit green mask and neon splattered jumpsuit, seriously. That eccentric onstage posture is amplified by the fact that he purposely plays a right-handed electric bass upside down. This flamboyant persona is what we’ve witnessed for the last fifteen years or so, but make no mistake, MonoNeon’s musical pedigree runs deep. He’s played with the Bar-Kays, Pops Staples, Rufus Thomas, and most famously as the last bassist for Prince. Today, besides being a solo artist with almost 20 albums, he remains a member of the jazz-funk unit Ghost-Note.
The album was recorded at Iceland’s Floki Studios (where artists such as George Porter, Jr., Joe Russo, and Oteil Burbridge have also recorded) and in Memphis. The album appears on the funk label, Color Red. His cohorts on this outing are his touring band, keyboardists Davy Nathan (also co-producer) and Charlie Brown, guitarists Xavier Lynn (Jon Cleary) and Peter Knudsen (Ghost-Note, Snarky Puppy), as well as drummer Devin Way. MonoNeon’s main collaborator is the Grammy-nominated producer Nathan, who together with the bassist, arrived at these songs rather spontaneously.
The Prince connection is vividly apparent on the funky opener “Bad Attitude” with MonoNeon’s layered vocals floating above the funky backdrop, leading to a percolating instrumental break. “City Life” meshes funk with hip-hop and whirling synths. It’s the kind of tune where it’s easy to envision MonoNeon prancing and stomping across the stage as he sings through a clipped-on mic. A filthy, funky bass line underpins “Beyonce,” as the protagonist plots his way to woo a woman via the pop superstar’s music. Here, the core band strips down to Nathan on keys, guest Ella Ray Fengold on guitar, while everyone else sits out. The percussion is synth-generated, sounding like hand claps. The full complement returns for the sassy, bitter “I Wish You Well” (“Why did you sleep with my best friend? I wish you well”), which begins quite well with a funky groove, but the chorus tends to linger on a bit long.
On the contrary, MonoNeon is utterly sincere on “Mama I Really Love,” which doesn’t read as a blues song until the monster guitarist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram blazes during the break. It’s an ode to his father, who moved to Europe when MonoNeon was just a youngster. He claims that he plays bass because of his dad, having followed his footsteps in joining the Bar-Kays. In an interview, MonoNeon claims that their relationship is now more solid than ever, as they have daily conversations and his dad is now playing one of his son’s signature five-string basses.
The dance-worthy, synth-driven contemporary R&B “All U Need Is Love” is paired with the softer, poppy, radio-friendly “You’re the One That I Like’ with Donald Hayes adding horns to the mix. A similar vibe colors the closer, horns intact for “I Know I’m Gonna See You Soon,” a weird but in-character MonoNeon outlook on mortality – “One day I know they’ll take me home/a rocket ship that’s green and shiny/I’ll get so high and look below/Why everyone is so damn tiny.” Yet, just as we’re locked into his funky and often poppy grooves, the album ends around 28 minutes. More material and variation would have served this effort well in terms of the last three tracks. Yet, the first half yielded five consecutive gems, all worthy of MonoNeon’s singular, genre-blurring approach.
