Obsessed with mental illness, loneliness, and survival,
Five Eight frontman Mike Mantione paints a harrowing picture on
The Good Nurse. Funeral march tempos and faded earth tone textures couch Mantione's meditations on manic depression and other day-to-day struggles. Kindred spirits may find solace in his testimony, but casual listeners will find the morbid hospital setting and overall sense of hopelessness a bit overwhelming. Sequenced like one long song,
The Good Nurse wallows in emo-style darkness from start to finish, with nary a respite from its stale smell of death. Not for the squeamish. ~ Andy Hinds