Hype will only get you so far. The buzz of online hysteria quickly fades to a whisper and soon silence too unless you can cut it in the real world. Two members of Mary In The Junkyard were once in the indie-pop band Second Thoughts, who found a captive, meme-hungry audience during those long, desperate days of lockdown. “What we’re doing here is trying to be the complete opposite of that,” singer and guitarist Clari Freeman-Taylor told NME of MITJ’s direction last year, “because we fucking hated it.” She’s right: the London trio could have been ripe to ruin if they hadn’t put the work in on the road with their fevered live shows.
Debut EP ‘This Old House’ arrives at the start of festival season, with the band set to appear at Truck and Latitude – an invite to lose a sunny afternoon with them if you can. Opener ‘Ghost’ carries that woozy modern shoegaze lightness you’d have heard among the likes of fellow upstarts NewDad, with a raw grunge bite, heavenly hooks and a romance that lifts everything skyward as Freeman-Taylor paints a picture of “pretty people smoking in the kitchen”, blushing after a stolen kiss.
“It’s been three months since we last spoke, because you never pick up the phone,” Freeman-Taylor pines over a skittering beat on ‘Marble Arch’ before she bitterly asks: “Will your mother wash your mouth out with the soap the made for you?” ‘Goops’ starts as a lo-fi goth ditty for a fly-encrusted pal “stuck inside for so long, you’ve forgotten how the sun feels”. The violins chirp, the strings cry and warp; the band share Robert Smith’s knack for turning dull reality into weirdly wonderful melodrama.
That menace bleeds into closer ‘Teeth’, an indie-noir underworld, a simmering promise begging to explode on stage. They may not be afraid to rummage through the weeds, but the dreamy ambition of Mary In The Junkyard is simply too great for just a viral moment – let their music pour out of your speakers and into your life. Get out and experience the flesh, blood, guts and grit of this band in all of their glory and promise.
Details
- Release date: May 23
- Record label: AMF Records
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
