Album: Death of the Party
Artist: Space Monkey Mafia
Released: August 14, 2025; Jump Up Records
Space Monkey Mafia hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota. While, they have been putting out music since 2018; they first jumped onto my radar with the release of “Salvage” back in July. It was high energy, with a message of solidarity and compassion that instantly sold me on the band. It didn’t take long, but ever since, I have been sitting here patiently waiting for this their newest album to drop.
I think the best place to begin and really give you an idea about what type of album “Death of the Party” is, is to start with the title track. When I first heard the name and saw the album art, I expected this to be a song about being a drag at a party. Death of the party being the exact opposite of life of the party….. in theory. Oh my, was I mistaken. This song opens up like vaudeville musical. It’s fantastically cinematic, steeped in dark humor, and catchy as all get out. The opening notes of Dente Leyva’s vocals are outrageously good in a way that steals my breath a little. I’m not going to do a break down of this song here because, if you haven’t heard it yet, I do not want to rob you of the oh shit moment that I had when I figured out what its actually about.
Next, I was really not expecting a song where the Property Brothers are the ‘face’ villains. With “Malas Raíces”, that is what you get. It’s about how liberal types acknowledge and pay respect to autarchies of the past while perpetuating modern versions of the same problems. The opening guitar is smooth, as are the horns. As the song plays out, its an indictment of the system. This eventually culminates in a verse where the energy turns angry and the lyrics become defiant. This part is in Spanish and I think that if you don’t speak the language, you should translate it, as it is the emotional anchor of the song. While the song isn’t specifically about the Property Brothers per-say, those two have never set right with me. Listening to them get roasted as proxies for the rich: exploiting, for profit, everyone’s need to have access to the land and homes, warms my heart a little.
Now is the part of the review where I gotta tell y’all about the song I like most on the album. And let me tell you this folks, this is going to be a hard task. Every song on this album is a banger. I was going to take the cop out route and not pick one, but I did that last week with the JER album, and I don’t want to start making that a habit. At first I was going to go with “Cult of Idiocracy” because I love its political commentary and frankly it’s a bop. Ultimately, I’m going to have to go with “Linear Time”. On a surface level you could call it a fun song. It’s got an upbeat tempo, horns that hit for days, and a chorus that just goes hard. However, on closer reflection you quickly discover that it really deals with the loss of a loved one and the feeling that your stuck here as time grinds forward pulling you further away from the one you lost. The thing that I think is really beautiful is the idea that the people you lose aren’t really gone; instead they found the freedom to travel through space time and in a way we’re the ones trapped here. There is a lot of symbolism packed in this song and it manages to be sad, sweet, and optimistic all at the same time. Actually at this point, I am glad I forced myself to pick a favorite cause this legitimately is it and if I hadn’t took a closer look in my mind, this might have remained the ‘fun’ song at the end of the record. That would have been a real shame.
“Death of the Party” is everything I want in a modern ska album. It critiques power. It has got a positive outlook on life, calls to action and it is absolutely stuffed full of raging horn lines. My only real regret about this, the 4th [album released by Space Monkey Mafia, is that I wasn’t aware of them 3 albums ago. Luckily, I’ve got plenty of time to catch up. If you aren’t already down with Space Monkey Mafia, I think you should join this party now, so you don’t end up regretting it like me.
If you like the album I reviewed here and want to support the artist as well as this blog please consider picking up the album via this affiliate link—> Purchase Death of the Party by Space Monkey Mafia digitally via Amazon Music
