Album Review: The Mary Onettes - Islands
- Written by Rob Barker
The Mary Onettes have made my job easy; I could do away with mentioning how their name reminds me of Earthbound (that SNES game from the 90’s) and just cut the whole review down to one sentence: Do you like The Cure? Yes? Then you’ll probably like The Mary Onettes.
Annoyingly that ‘probably’ means I have to elaborate and actually write a proper review, damn. Hailing from Sweden, The Mary Onettes are essentially an 80’s inspired pop band, taking their cues from gloomy acts such as Echo and The Bunnymen, and of course, The Cure.
However, where The Cure were known to produce the occasional upbeat tune, such as ‘Lovecats’ and ‘Friday I’m In Love’, this band maintain a steady level of mediocre melancholy in their sound, making them great for sad funeral moments in low budget films and sitting rocking gently in the dark, but not good for much else.
While Islands is without doubt a well performed and polished album, it just lacks energy, with each track agonisingly dragging into the next, like the horror that was the Freddie Krueger TV series (although The Mary Onettes could probably benefit from the excitement of having razor sharp fingers).
On paper it should all work, flowing orchestral strings, light guitar work and steady percussion, all with smooth, warm production and melodic vocals laid over the top. ‘God Knows I Had Plans’ is a perfect example, mixed to perfection, with lovelorn vocals and a sound softer than air, and it would be great by itself, but with a whole album of samey tracks, it just grates.
So, if you’re not one for the cheer of Christmas, or if you’ve just seen a box of kittens carried by the world’s most adorable monkey run over by a convoy of Coca Cola lorries, then this could be for you. If you still actually have some semblance of warmth in your heart, then there are far better albums out there for you.