Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Quite often in life the recommendations of others are to be taken with even the smallest pinch of salt, the sense of different taste is to be acknowledged, recognised, celebrated for all it is worth, and yet it must still be admitted. The only words of wisdom that you should ever trust apart from your own, is that of the one you call Mother, be it a physical person who has steered you right each time, or that of the symbolic, the one beneath our feet and the one that is all around, the icon of Mother Nature, the one that gives the planet the electric character of renewal and rebirth.
Whilst it may seem strange in this modern age of mass material to accompany other genres’ albums, the seemingly never-ending supply of remixes and alternate versions that make up the conscious desire to either give the fan an insight they didn’t need, or because the album is often too weak to stand up and be counted upon in its own right; what Electric Mary do on Mother is to be applauded and admired. The direct approach of having only eight songs, of laying bare the soul in a quick burst of musical temper, is to see a soul unfold and flower, it doesn’t tease, it doesn’t allude to a higher purpose which is drowned out by mockery and titillation, it is just a companion in this short time on Earth, the serious figure that awaits at the end of the day and tells you how life has been.
Across the tracks Gimme Love, Hold Onto What You Got, How Do You Do It, Sorry Babe, The Way You Make Me Feel, It’s Alright, Long Long Day and the single Woman, Rusty Brown, Pete Robinson, Alex Raunjak, Brett Wood and Spyder display Mother as further evidence of their place at the vanguard of this century’s Rock dynamic.
An auspicious follow up to 2011’s III and 2016’s Alive In Hell, Mother is to be cherished, raised with the expectation that we, as listeners, can, and will, do better. An album that defies others who tie themselves to the shackles of over populating the narrative; this is short burst of phenomenal anger that comes with the strictness of possession, an album that cares for the music, one that is never neglectful.
Electric Mary release Mother on February 15th via Listenable Records.
Ian D. Hall