Musical Musings

Artist: Mother Mother
Album: Eureka
Listening to Mother Mother is a bit like reading a stranger’s diary. The specifics of events and emotions are different, but are completely relatable. The hope, frustration and disappointment are the same, even if theirs is over a broken relationship, and yours is about missing a bus. Don’t get me wrong, these guys are a pessimistic bunch of people (The sunniest lyric? “I could explode/Oh, what I’d give to be a supernova/Oh, if I could be blown to bits”).  But the doubts and hesitations are the same ones that we text to our friends, and Facebook status update to the rest. And it doesn’t hurt that their music makes you want to dance in an erratic and irreverent manner. I dare anyone to listen to the first 12 seconds of ‘Aspiring Fires’ and not tap something in time with the amazing carnival-on-acid melody.
The very first ‘Mother Mother’ song I heard was ‘Hayloft’, from their 2008 release ‘O My Heart’. The story is a simple one; a couple of teenagers go up to a hay loft to get to know each other better, and a father shows up with a gun. Calling it a story is a misnomer actually, it’s more of a moment. A moment, despite being verbally described by just two verses, is conveyed completely by the music. The background is set from the very first note, one steeped in more heavy anticipation then any axe murder movie soundtrack. This is true for all of Mother Mother’s work; the lyrics are simple, razor sharp and are supported completely by the music. And it’s this combination that makes sure that nothing gets lost in translation; your heart starts beating in time with the drums, and your brain realises that you know exactly what’s being sung about.
Take ‘The Stand’ for example. It’s my favourite of the bunch, and starts off with what basically is a melodic interrogation. Sound matches content; the music is dark and closed during the questioning, and then suddenly opens up as soon as we hear the words “Let’s talk about space”. Now it feels like we’re floating, but we can still clearly see the Earth, where Ryan Guldemond “can hardly stand the sight of it all”. The ending is as decisive as the accompanying beats that make it; there’s no doubt about the state of humankind as Mother Mother sees it (and it’s not very print-friendly).
And decisive is what this band does best. Who else could sing “I’m a loser/A disgrace” repeatedly, without making it sound like an anthem of self-pity. Guldemond makes it sound like a fact of life, something you do not mess with and try to make better. But this less-than-shiny view on life is not something to bring us down, or depress. Like that stranger’s diary, it’s not meant to be the gospel truth that’s meant to followed. It’s merely something to think about before moving on with your day. Something to tweet about, keep at the back of your mind, and then go on with life. It’s “something to consider/ When you come for dinner/ At my place.”