Mother Mother - Touch Up
Last Gang Records
2007
It's not typical to stumble across young bands with such a refreshingly original sound and mature understanding of their direction. Mother Mother's re-release of it's first, unnoticed album 'Touch Up' includes two new songs not available on their first attempt, and with the support of Last Gang Records (Metric, Death From Above 1979), have managed to piece together an album that is both artistic and technically impeccable. Their creative acceleration and stability can only be attributed to the jazz and/or classical training that all five members of the band possess, although not once through the course of the album is this obvious in the writing but only in each members proficient confidence in their performance.
Perhaps the key ingredient in this tasty, original flavor is the combined vocal talent of three of Mother Mother's performers; Ryan Guldemond and sister Molly along with Debra-Jean Creelman. Not only do the timbres of their voices complement each other in a way rarely seen in similar genres, but their awareness of rhythm in the vocal lines demands the listeners' ear more so than usual. This of course, is taken advantage of by the rhythm section of the band comprised of Kenton Loewen on drums and Jeremy Page on bass. Even with this ability and creativity, the usual traps of abusing these songwriting tactics are cleverly avoided with a pop sensibility, ensuring the accessibility of the music and the end goal of writing for the song and not ego.
The lyrics will sometimes seem like genius disguised as absurdity which allows the listener to either enjoy them at face value or admire the poetry they are actually comprised of. Each song offers its own mood and when the album is absorbed as a whole, not any one emotion or feeling is dwelled-upon. In fact, the ratio of seriousness to humor is so well executed in the layout of and within the songs, it makes it difficult to hit the stop button before the album is through playing.
With a first review, the overall sound is a bit of a sensory overload; however, this album is terribly addictive and only sounds better with each subsequent listen. Mother Mother is truly a big shiny diamond in the rough of the Canadian music industry and worth a listen.
Luke McCarter
February 16, 2008
