Supplied photo
I am impressed by Mannequin Pussy. The band makes contemporary indie rock that excels without posturing or abducting the riffs of pre-internet college radio’s heyday. MP writes melodies that sound as if no other option would make as much sense or satisfy the notes. This forgone conclusion of artistry is especially true on the choruses. The group packs the punch of the Pixies, and knows how to jangle along in those reverby, clean, jazzy chords that often disintegrate into warming fuzz layers.
Formed in Philadelphia in 2010, MP performs songs that don’t exude the kind of pretension you might imagine coming from a band whose debut record was released only on cassette in 2013. The music is rocking, philosophical, and insightful, particularly on 2024’s I Got Heaven, where the group deals adroitly in dynamics. Shouty fury breaks open panoramically with soaring, soul-bearing beauty.
When MP is raging, it’s menacing. You wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of main vocalist Marisa Dabice’s tirade on the title track. As exciting as Bristol, England-based act Idles, Mannequin Pussy provides its share of punkish bursts crammed into one- to two-minute trad hardcore takes like “Aching,” a speedfreak that calmly swims into “Split Me Open,” the sweetly knit closer that you can imagine hearing on a Tuesday morning WNRN playlist.
Dabice’s voice goes from fully angelic to Linda Blair possessed at the drop of a distorted guitar, a schizophrenic back-and-forth that encapsulates the feeling of the band with one distinction: It doesn’t simply loud/quiet through every track for the hell of it. No, these shifts feel like calculated decisions that ultimately support smartly crafted choruses that could stand as catchy a capella singalongs to fill the darkness if the world lost all of its electricity for a while.
