Mannequin Pussy
I Got Heaven
***and1/2 out of *****
The Philadelphia, PA based quartet Mannequin Pussy's newest release, I Got Heaven on Epitaph Records, is a mix of caterwauling aggression and soothing serenity as the band toys with rock subgenres and feels at home in all that they offer up throughout this confident record.
The opening title track is the only effort here that merges their aggressive side with their pop leanings in the same song as it shifts from sweet to furious, as screaming verses about holy/unholy smash into blissful choruses with synths and distortion mix it up. The effort is a bit of an outlier as after the opener, the band (Marisa Dabice, Kaleen Reading, Colins "Bear" Regisford, & Maxine Steen) keep their various influences separated song to song. The album sounds excellent sonically, produced & mixed by John Congleton.
On the softer side comes "I Don't Know You" a straight ahead pop rock offering that is unironic and dreamy as it floats out of speakers blissfully with bright lines and dreamy hooks. The fact that it sits a few songs away from "OK? OK! OK? OK!", a straight up hardcore destroyer that is heavy as hell, shows that band is comfortable delivering a wide range of music and are hard to pin down.
Sticking along those hardcore punk lines are "Of Her" and "Aching" both brutal, brief numbers that slam out with revved up energy using crushing riffs, and a sludgy groove that work in their stomping ways. These efforts add grime and muscle to more pretty escapes like "Nothing Like" which moves into soaring dream pop land and "Loud Bark" which starts our soft and grows in menace around a chanting chorus of "Loud bark/Deep bite".
The group also harkens back to the 90's alt-rock heyday with the bass driven "Sometimes" and "Softly" both delivering the flannel inspired fuzziness and a loud/quite/loud motif in the vein of The Pixies. Album closer "Split Me Open" also gets in on that retro rock act with arena ready riffs and a hint at larger things to come for the band.
While jarring at times as a full length listen, the genre defying I Got Heaven is a solid release from Mannequin Pussy who have potential to seemingly go anywhere they would like in the rock world and beyond.
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