An ear-catchingly idiosyncratic, eccentric, whimsical, experimental indie rock debut LP by the London trio of Clari Freeman-Taylor, Saya Barbaglia and David Addison, with instruments including viola, cello, and drone base of harmonium. Freeman-Taylor’s voice is fragile, whispery quiet and croaky, Addison’s percussion is often light and plinky-plonky, but it somehow it all works. The album opens with the oddball, throwaway, meanderingly slow, experimental, repeating Mantra III (“It is your space you deserve it” endlessly repeated). Blood has a fuzz-guitar gentle beauty, but instant standout New Muscles is a droll and catchy parody of macho braggadocio about gym achievements with backing vocal singalong “doo-doos” and Freeman-Taylor’s squeaky-mouse voice declaring how: “I've been looking for somebody to fight / There's no one on the streets at night.” moving into a particularly beautiful pre-chorus culminating in “I could take you down with one finger.”
The indie-rock Seek and Destroy expresses a balance of introversion and extraversion in confessional fragile confidence: “I always take too long to think, but maybe that's a good thing / I can take a while to warm and sometimes stay freezing.” Crash Landing takes a wry metaphorical look at relationships over a bed of harmonium drone: ““You opened up—you opened up like a coconut,” she continually repeats. The fully acoustic Thou Shalt Sprout has a mesmeric, shuffling spooky ballad folk about an errant father who meets a grim agricultural end, from the point of view of mother who has a daughter: “Your heart was a beetroot /And your head was a lemon tree / Your arms were an olive branch / Your hair became corn / You fed me forever / Our daughter grew big and strong / I told her the story / Of her father's care.” But even more whimsical and oddly moving is closer Mouse, as evoked by the album cover photograph, and is inspired by Freeman-Taylor’s stated dreamed imagined past life as a fisherman who had a mouse friend and then seeks to re-find him in another life (“Mouse, you were a mouse / I have no doubt / You open your mouth / And an unfamiliar voice comes out”) but sadly enduring a tragic end at sea. The final evocation of that plinky, dripping, leaking boat sound is magical. A strange, gentle, oddly enjoyable and original full debut release. Out on AMF.
New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Feel free to recommend more new songs and albums and comment below. You can also use the contact page, or find more on social media: Song Bar X, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube, and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share.
Song Bar is non-profit and is simply about sharing great music. We don’t do clickbait or advertisements. Please make any donation to help keep the Bar running: