As the title implies, your mother will probably think it's weird, too. First impressions alone will have her calling your therapist to increase the Prozac dose: the ominous Teutonicness of the band's name; the Marilyn Mansonesque visage on the cover; the players' names (The Grey, Heartless, Long Gone Sean, Miss Carriage); the inner sleeve notes ("Your supposed 20th Century reason has brought you to nowhere -- your abortions lie all around us for all to see...", etc.) and the band's serpent-cradling-a-cross logo will combine to give mom a conniption fit.

Imagine your surprise, then, when Neurmison turn out to be more musically proficient and lyrically intriguing than the Rammstein-meets-Manson act that their trappings would indicate. That isn't to say that My Mother Thinks It's Weird doesn't contain its share of disturbing imagery and distorted guitar; the band have a tight grip on the surreal, and wading into My Mother... can at times feel like visiting the innermost thoughts of a schizophrenic. "Lost tits don't rest/scuzza give me a broken heart/Phil starters gizza moron," begins "Dying for the 7th Time This Week", which only partly conveys the dislocation caused by this debut from the Scottish quartet, who cut-and-paste words like James Joyce on a bender with Wm. Burroughs.

Other lyrics are equally twisted, while also touching briefly on a gritty reality, as with "Staticattic"'s lyrics: "Black spot on a wall, once a centimeter/ten feet tall/Pictures floating I wonder at all/Had a brother he got forsaken/Had a dealer he got taken." Neurmison occasionally stumble into cliché, but their music retains a sense of tension. "Female Oriented Planet Control" builds to a grinding climax that recalls some of Bauhaus' heavier songs, while "However, Whatever...But Definitely For Sure" sneaks in a bit of jazzy bass and surf guitar before exploding into an arena-rock chorus worthy of any Ozzfest participant. Passages of ambient sound shift into thundering minor-chord rock, and Neurmison succeed in making each aspect reflect (and affect) the other.

Goth-rock hasn't fared well lately, which doesn't seem to matter to Neurmison. They're no copycat act -- neither early pioneers like Bauhaus nor latter-day poseurs like Mr. M. Manson are aped at any length. My Mother Thinks It's Weird combines enough style and substance that "weird" begins to sound like a very good thing.