Mandy, Indiana drop new album ‘URGH’
The band’s second album is a satisfying representation of healing through screaming.
★★★★★
Photo: Charles Gall
Mandy, Indiana’s second album, almost entirely in French, chronicles the members’ physical and emotional recoveries from surgery and anger towards the political events of the past two years.
Sevastopol, the album’s opener, relies heavily on synth player Simon Catling, who dominates the opening of this album with surprising and captivating skill. After a chopped-up verse about the band members’ own mortality, told entirely in French by vocalist Valentine Caulfield, the track switches into the sounds of a haunted carousel, carrying listeners along until its unexpectedly peaceful end.
The track introduces an album that’s constantly experimenting, and therefore unexpected, with four artists who are clearly masters of their weird and wonderful sound.
The track is followed by the album’s single, Magazine, which combines Catling’s continued synth elements with metallic beats from percussionist Alex Macdougall. The two beats merge together and build into Caulfield’s chorus of the repeated line “je vien pour toi,” which translates into “I’m coming for you”.
These first two tracks are followed by try saying. Opening with striking metallic percussion and spliced vocals, the track’s heavy sound is paired with a spoken monologue about wanting love. try saying lacks a proper chorus or verse, but the lyrics: “J’avais juste envie de quelque chose de simple / De quelque chose de beau / Et tout le monde autour de moi semble y arriver si facilement” (“I just wanted something simple / Something beautiful / It seems to come so easily to everyone around me”) make a massive impact.
Dodecahedron, the album’s fourth track, is driven by an intense drum beat, driving the track forward and enforcing all of its lyrics. The emotion behind this album is evident in every track, with Dodecahedron being an appropriately uneasy protest anthem. The song’s most prominent lyric repeats “Lève toi et marche”, translating to “Stand up and march”.
A Brighter Tomorrow seems to, in title, provide a continuation for the previous track. The song turns out to be a snapshot of a very brief and vague moment spent with someone else. The song’s only lyrics tell the story “Presque comme une caresse / Tes mains sur ma peau / J’en perds / Le souffle”, translating to “Almost like a caress / Your hands on my skin / I am losing / My breath”.
The track that follows is Life Hex. Life Hex is an easy highlight of the album. The song’s introduction features a sped-up line from the film The Craft, “Light as a feather, stiff as a board” crashing into the band’s signature sonic chaos. Here, the all-encompassing sounds of amp feedback are combined with whispers and eerie choir-esque vocals to create a track that could easily find its place in an old horror movie.
ist halt so follows, and proves itself to be another track with immense power, both in its sound and its subject matter. The rapid succession of lyrics and sound continues the channelled 90s energy and the theme of urgent need for change.
Here, Caulfield sings “L’avenir nous appartient et notre humanité / Vaut plus que leurs mensonges et leurs bombes et leur haine”, translating to “The future belongs to us, and our humanity / Is worth more than their lies and their bombs and their hatred.” Caulfield also ends the track with one of the best lines of the album, “Ils ont essayé de nous enterrer / Ils ne savaient pas que nous étions des graines”, which reads “They tried to bury us / They didn’t know we were seeds” once translated, leaving the listener completely captivated.
Sicko!, featuring Billy Wood, takes on a much more electronic approach than the rest of the album, combining Wood’s rap vocals with a structured tune. The first of the album’s only two tracks in English, the song stands out as a welcome sonic balance to the latter half of the album.
The album’s second single and stand-out track, Cursive continues the club sound of Sicko!, but this time using the band’s messy, punk sound. Energetic and fun, Cursive gives a more light-hearted side to the album; easy to dance to and to get all of your friends hooked on.
The band closes the album with I’ll Ask Her. A track that leaves with a bang, I’ll Ask Her uses Mandy, Indiana’s combination of spoken vocals and feedback loops to express anger over the behaviour of guys at parties.
Closing the album with a track so remarkably and poignantly expressive, Mandy, Indiana makes a name for themselves with this album alone. Every track moves in a slightly different way while all being relatable, deep and danceable. One of the best punk albums I’ve heard in a long damn time; I loved it.
URGH is out now via Sacred Bones.