One of the rare instances of a band getting more raucous with time (and success), Mannequin Pussy’s third studio album I Got Heaven sets the mood with heavy drums and cutting vocals. While the sound doesn’t swing in as hard, or as messy, as previous albums, the band hits their stride with lyrics equal parts scalding and snotty.
Album opener and title track ‘I Got Heaven’ fires up with growling vocals and droning guitars. I’m going to try and only say that once; consider this a blanket statement actually. Assume the vocals are always growling unless I say otherwise. A softer, almost spoken word section, reminiscent of Wet Leg, takes over the verse before blowing back into, well, growls. One track in and I’ve already found my favourite lyric “what if Jesus himself ate my fucking snatch?” What if, indeed.
‘Loud Bark’ is exactly, well, not that. More alt-rock than punk, the guitars swell and ride the quiet-loud-quiet wave but the vocals stay fairly even keel. The lyrics bite down hard with lines like: “I want to be a danger/ I want to be adored/ I want to walk around at night while being ignored”.
Time for the disclaimer I suppose. On “I Don’t Know You” the growling stops and a lighter, softer touch takes over. Sounding like a toned down Sleater-Kinney the band hunkers down in their 90s grunge bomb shelter. I can almost smell the plaid.
On ‘OK? OK! OK? OK!’ a certain punkiness renters the chat. Sonorous, rough and screamed through, it’s one of my favourite tracks on the album. In a similar vein ‘Of Her’ blasts through its short run time with gang vocals and overdrive to the max. I’ll say this briefly, and only once, but yeah, there’s a lot of Amyl and The Sniffers there. The voice, the inflection, the sheer power of it all. It’s worth noting that Mannequin Pussy have been kicking around a few years longer than Amyl and The Sniffers, but honestly, who’s counting.
I don’t have much to say about ‘Aching’ because I was too busy losing my mind to some of the best bass lines on the album. Sorry. I’ll pay more attention next time.
Closing track ‘Split Me Open’ feels like orange juice on a hangover. It’s soft, refreshing even, but echoes last night just enough that you’re feeling a bit uneasy. It’s definitely jarring to loop back to the harsh opener after the falsetto vocals and light instrumentation.
The album as a whole feels slick but with spit, not shimmer or flash. It’s dry heaving, it’s taking another shot, it’s having a good time, it’s beautiful in an unbeautiful place. I Got Heaven is unapologetic in its honesty and ambitions. It’s punk yes, but it’s neatly composed and expertly produced. Mannequin Pussy birthed a searing album that’s well worth a listen.
