Review Summary: There’s a weight coming off my mind, it’s something new I’ve been trying / When the weight comes off my mind, I’m never gonna feel this tired
Say what you will about a band’s aesthetic, technical ability or genre label; there’s only one thing that really matters when it comes to making ‘good music’, and that’s good songwriting. Fanboys and critics may argue over certain stylings or production choices, but at the end of the day it’s the songs themselves that artists will (or at least should) live or die by. This is where Exeter trio Muncie Girls come in: they write ***ing great songs.
Over the course of a rough demo tape and last year’s ‘Revolution Summer’ EP, Muncie Girls have proven that they don’t write (or just don’t release) bad songs, and Sleepless is a further continuation of this hot streak. Sitting on the rougher edges of indie- influenced punk, these tracks- like all of the band’s catalogue to date- are melodic, emotive and just ridiculously tight. Yet the songs on Sleepless are also longer than we’ve seen before and feel somewhat denser in their composition, with a greater number of individual parts resulting in a more complex whole. This provides a nice contrast to the more straight-forward songs found on ‘Revolution Summer’, and this versatility sets us up nicely for what has the potential to be a great debut full length (assuming one is in the works). The only drawback comes lyrically, where at times it feels like three minutes worth of words have been stretched over nearly five minutes of music; so while Lande Hekt’s examinations of anxiety and self-doubt prove as sincere as ever, the band can be guilty of repeating themselves one too many times.
Musically, the most ‘different’ sounding song on ‘Sleepless’ is the third track, which is Muncie Girls’ slowest and softest to date (dare I mention the words ‘power ballad’?!). Pulled along by Hekt’s emotive delivery, ‘Music Forever’ builds steadily for the best part of three minutes until, despite never really exploding, the tension thickens and the band reaches full tilt. The release comes in the form of Dean McMullen’s solo which, backed by swelling organs, fits seamlessly into the emotional arc of the track whilst remaining somewhat unexpected. Rising triumphantly from ‘Music Forever’ is the jagged riff of the title track, another banger of a song which at this point can simply be described as classic Muncie Girls; the final anthemic refrain (“There’s a weight coming off my mind, it’s something new I’ve been trying / When the weight comes off my mind, I’m never gonna feel this tired”) is merely the icing on an already perfectly constructed cake.
Questions over lyrics aside, with ‘Sleepless’ it appears that Muncie Girls have all the bases covered when it comes to writing ***ing great songs. I’m expecting big things if/when their debut LP arrives sometime next year.
