by Sara Mae (@veryverynoisy)
Frontwoman Marisa “Missy” Dabice has said the new Mannequin Pussy album, I Got Heaven, is about unleashing the animal inside of her, about a kind of freedom we aren't allowed. It is that feral eeriness that defines this album and what gives it a distinct sound from previous MP records. The ten songs on this LP feel like crawling through mud, sprinting through tall grass, seeing your hot breath drift upwards towards the stars outside a bar in winter. A soaring, sexy droning is the foundational characteristic, whether it be a sparkling, circular lead riff, or a monotonous harmony delicately delivered by Dabice. There is amazing tension in every song, straddling lustrousness and grit.
“Loud Bark” is a perfect window into the album as a whole. It is sharp and sweaty, a dirty bass and a clean guitar tone. Missy’s vocals rise like climaxing, and backup vocals echo behind touched by decay. The four singles illuminate this chapter of the band: the glitter grunge of “I Don’t Know You,” the pop crooning of “Nothing Like,” demonic harmonies mixed with the airy and surging lead on “I Got Heaven,” and the stomach drop of the fuzzy chorus on “Sometimes.” I Got Heaven maintains the inflection of earlier Mannequin Pussy records, but is balanced by an unsettling, teasing sweetness. Macie Stewart’s harmonies and violin add a tenderness to the mix, new MP guitarist Maxine Steen brings synth sensibilities to the record, Dabice digging up throaty screams offset by whispering lyrics almost in a kind of pillow talk.
“OK? OK! OK? OK!” has the thrashing quality of earlier song, “Clams,” the ending of Dabice screaming, “Huh? What’d you say to me?” with a kind of tremolo on it so her voice almost scintillates. Bassist Colins “Bear” Regisford takes the lead on this track, alternating between pissed-off laments about the state of everyday life (“Waiting on a check / Gotta call my mama back”) and lines that sound like shaming someone in bed (“You’re gonna fuckin / Beg / And heel / And learn”), the bass line hot, the sound like someone stalking across a stage. “Tell Me Softly” ends with Dabice in a similar tone of taunting the you of the song, “So you plead and you say, so you plead and you say,” repeated. This album positions the speakers in places of both power and desperation, solidifying a twinkling depravity.
“Tell Me Softly” is a great representation of how the record pulls these puppet strings of momentum, drummer Kaleen Reading giving and taking the music’s seductive impulses and movements. “Of Her” is a minute and a half long, and feels emboldened in its anger, “And in my body I am saving / All my dollars for the holy / And yes i suffer for the money / Serve me on a platter and then cut me,” ending with a punching, blown out bass. “Split Me Open” begins with dazed and hypnotizing lines: “Split me open / Pour your love in me / Oh it’s been awhile since I’ve had company / Oh its been awhile since someone touched me,” and moves towards Dabice screaming “nothing’s gonna change” as a sort of bridge, the refrain a similar feeling to “something’s in your eyes” from “Control,” a triumphant tap into the band’s history.
Listening to I Got Heaven is rattling, galvanizing, more than a little bit horny. It makes you want to give your body over to it. The excitement around this album is deserved, the alt kids in Philly (and all over) buzzing about it, a recent sold out WXPN show, more tour dates selling out each day. On “Loud Bark” Missy sings, “I got a loud bark, a deep bite” over and over, a gleaming guitar looping underneath. It sounds like a spell.