Listen
This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions.
Photo: Sarah Burton
Wellington-by-way-of-Auckland trio Mermaidens have waited till now to release a self-titled album. It’s less angular than their previous, Look Me In The Eye, and not as noisy as the one prior, Perfect Body.
The main theme I pick up from this collection is one of solidarity, as music videos and publicity shots emphasise the longstanding friendship between the band’s three members. And that’s matched with music as inviting as anything they’ve done.
There’s always been a tension in Mermaidens’ music between spiky riffs or elements of dissonance, and good old fashioned indie rock, and that song ‘Sister’ does a great job of delineating the two, with a chorus that feels ported over from a completely different track.
It works, though, as Gussie Larkin expresses concern for a female friend over some open-armed chords. It’s tempting to think she’s singing about co-vocalist Lily West, but I suspect that’s too literal.
‘I Like to be Alone’ is even more genial, despite its title, with twinkling guitar and call and response backing vocals, building to a swelling, harmonious chorus.
Liner notes mention the album was in gestation since 2019, and that the result is a distillation of the best bits. There was the obvious hurdle of a pandemic during that time, but I wonder at the implication that other bits that didn’t make the cut, and whether they’ll surface.
Mermaidens was co-produced by Samuel Flynn-Scott from The Phoenix Foundation, a good fit for a band making music that’s accessible while staying challenging around the margins.
There's a notable shift in the second half into more downbeat, sparse territory. ‘Push It’ starts with just Lily West’s bass and voice, before a melancholy piano enters, alongside Abe Hollingsworth’s typically nimble drumming, ending on a hypnotic tangle of rhythmic voices.
The band told Audioculture the focus this time was stripping things away and focusing on vocals, and that’s most apparent in the back half of the album. In Larkin’s other band, Earth Tongue, the focus is on enormous, sludgy guitar riffs, but on tracks like ‘Comet’ her playing is dreamy and atmospheric.
It’s one of two songs on the album where she and West sing co-lead, and features one of its most immediate choruses.
Next up, ‘Greedy Mouth’ features some acerbic lyrics, but is otherwise woozily lovely, a straight up synth ballad. Mermaidens have dabbled in this sort of thing before, but it feels particularly immersive here.
Some press around the album mentioned it being a new direction for the band, and on tracks like this that’s apparent. In that same Audioculture article, Larkin mentions their audience is “more of an RNZ crowd” these days. We should count ourselves lucky.