Mother Mother – O My Heart
A lot of bands today are getting to be very extravagant, spending a far chunk of their time adding in as many instruments as possible. Which can be fine, but frankly its more impressive if a band can make a unique sound using only the basics, and if there is any band that can do this it’s Mother Mother.
Mother Mother’s sophomore album O My Heart may be one of the most intriguing albums I’ve heard in a long time. It differs a lot from their first album Touch Up, but they both have a similar feel to them. Touch Up was much more acoustic, with O My heart focusing more on the whole of the band. The songs are all based on three part harmonies, which are mixed together beautifully. Lead singer Ryan Guldemond usually takes the main lines while the two female vocalists will harmonize occasionally taking lead parts through out the songs. The vocals alone are reason enough to check out the album, but the instrumentation remains amazingly interesting as well; with songs ranging from being based on simple chord structures, heavy riffs or complex countryesque guitar.
Mother Mother sound like The Pixies would today if they got along really well with each other and then never broke up (please excuse how pretentious that description was). The songs often are focused more on the vocals rather then actual lyrics, but there has a certain charm to it. Take for example Hayloft, the lyrics tell a simple story of a couple having sex in a barn and the girl’s dad walks in with a shotgun. It’s just a simple story but it’s much better than anyone trying to come up with clever way to write the same love story over and over.
I cannot recommend this album, or this band more. It’s a shame that these guys have been relatively overlooked, as they are doing more interesting things than nearly anything that’s being made right now.
Mother Mother – O My Heart
Mother Mother – Hayloft
Mother Mother – Wrecking Ball
Tags: album
