Mumm-Ra: These Things Come In Threes
Mumm-Ra arrive with their debut
Also In The News
|
Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave fame returns with his second solo album and a more measured and mellow record compared with his earlier efforts. |  |
Tuesday, 29, May 2007 05:20
Columbia Records out now.
In a nutshell...
Jaunty enthusiastic stuff with a hatful of crescendo
What's it all about?
It's about being young (ah the faded memories) jumping around, and, well, having a nice time without the Sword of Omens giving you sight beyond sight.
Who's it by
Debut from Thundercat villain-monikered urchin minstrel quintet from Bexhill on Sea - snapped up by Columbia (no doubt looking for the next Arctics) and sent off to Grenada to record an album with Martin "Youth" Glover (The Verve, Charlatans, Embrace).
As an example…
"Starlight our local inspiration and, Goodbye I hope you had the best time tonight Tonight, Tonight." - Starlight
What the others say
"Simply spine-tingling... very very special." NME
"It's not the most innovative or interesting... you'll hear all year. But it's a startlingly good slice of sunshine-filled familiarity." Contact Music
So is it any good?
Does These Things Move in Threes add anything to the dialectic? Well, no. It's not your Arctic Monkeys, but it is rather good. Forty-five minutes of good jaunty rock with a dark side, and no-one can say that's a bad thing.
Mumm-Ra take you up and down and mostly up. It's a rare album that makes you want to jump up and down on your bed.
On to These Things Move in Threes, the album starts off quiet and builds and builds quite nicely in a Sigur Rós kind of a way and carries on with a bucket of harmony - a soupcon of horns and a hatful of pleasant hooks. There are a few dark rock tracks, time to reflect afterwards.
I could go through the tracks, but really this defies analysis - These Things Move In Threes is an album about playing guitars loudly - stopping to be a bit introverted (partly to catch your breathe) and then leaping into the fray again. Is the song writing good? No, but it doesn't matter. Buy the album, jump around have a nice time, drink a little too much rum and buy some biscuits to keep you going. Mumm-Ra give you all the joys of the first week of the summer holidays with a new girlfriend
Unfortunately, there's no real message to get a firm grip on - not that music always has to be 'deep' and that the disposable is not without worth. It's just that there is better on the market that Mumm-Ra - perhaps they should go back to Bexhill on Sea and come back in a couple of years with a great album. Mumm-Ra is the kind of band you suspect that could produce something great in the future - just not yet.
Almost 7/10
Daniel Barnes