Album Review By Alex Walden

One of Mannequin Pussy’s core themes for their lyrics is the exploration of love. Ranging from the peaks of obsession and lust to the crushing blows of heartbreak, they know how to articulate their emotions well, particularly through lead singer Marisa “Missy” Dabice’s words that present how although being in love can be amazing, it can mess you up and change you completely.

This album takes that concept and amplifies it to the point of near perfection. In a recent interview with Kerrang, Dabice spoke about how she’s conflicted with how easy it is to give yourself up to love through her experience of her frequent past relationships.

“I’ve been someone’s fucking girlfriend for 10 years straight of my life – and for fucking what?” … “There is something gross in realising how quickly I could get into another romantic relationship after ending one. It’s psychotic to never take a break and time for myself to figure out what it is that I need to work on, or heal, or focus on.”

When you listen to the lyrics of this project, you can begin to see how Dabices turbulent love life served as the fuel for this project. With lines like ‘Nothing like the shape of you, Entering a room I spin round you’ and ‘Oh, what’s wrong with dreaming of burning it all down?, If it’s what you want, I would give my life’ we are presented with crazy levels of obsession but then with lines like ‘I fear Ican’t hide, that sometimes I want you’ and ‘I’m worried I want you with the power of a thousand Suns’ we are presented this idea of wanting someone so badly but being scared to admit to oneself that there in love.

Emotionally Heavy Lyricism

The alternate music scene is one of my favourite areas to discover new artists. Don’t get me wrong I love all genres of music, but the alt scene has that level of raw energy and passion that you just don’t get with other genres.

Philadelphia’s Mannequin Pussy are no exception to this. Just from the name alone, you can already begin to infer the level of intensity of the band’s music.

It was after I heard their title track from their EP “Perfect” that I was hooked; the sheer aggression from the instrumentals paired with outrageously vulgar lyrics like ‘Kiss all my holes, Call me a bitch, Tell me I’m perfect’ left me stunned. If this band has something to say, they’re going to say it, regardless of the repercussions.

It was the openness of the lyricism paired with hostile instrumentals that drew me to Mannequin Pussy, but could they match that feeling in their new project?

Soft but Heavy

I feel like Mannequin Pussy are better known for their more hardcore tracks rather than their slow ones and that’s fair; I mean if a band sounds as aggressive as this, you’re not going to care about the soft stuff right? To my surprise, I Got Heaven takes a complete twist on this in the way that the melodic tracks take the helm on this EP.

Tracks such as Softly and Sometimes, really showcase the excellence of this bands melodic approach; the heavy smacking of the drums is replaced for a much lighter fashion while Maria Dabices swaps her screaming for a more soft and soothing vocal style.

Despite this, the lyrics are still filled with those heavy emo themes along with a sprinkle of distortion here and there from the guitar to match the heaviness of Dabices topics. This mix of a softer tone with a sprinkle of harshness gives it a real feeling of openness and exposure of oneself that can resonate well with the listener. Afterall, love isn’t all rainbows and sunshine, it’s a very powerful emotion that can control you if you’re not careful.

Final Thoughts…

I have a soft spot for hardcore bands that can also channel their emotions into an easier going sound. It shows that music to them is more than just a way for them to get their anger out by screaming it all away, it’s an art form for them, a medium of expression. I Got Heaven is a prime example of this. You're still given that hardcore sound that we all yearn for in tacks like “I Got Heaven” and “OK? OK! OK? OK!” but their softer sound has improved tremendously, it sounds clearer, heavier and more emotionally charged and it really shows to the point where it’s the driving focus of the album.