Mumm-Ra
These Things Move in Threes EP
There is a moment on this album (somewhere around the first chorus of ‘Out of the Question’ – think Snow Patrol circa ‘Snowfighter Pilot’ but without the crap dancing) when the lo-fi tinges of the opening track ‘Now or Never’ are pushed away to reveal a perfectly honed pop machine. Synths bubble and guitars clang, but for all their indie fringes and ragged edges there is no doubt that this is pop at its most pure and joyous.
Taking elements from the sunnier side of the palate (Teenage Fanclub, Flaming Lips, even the spacey ballads of Mercury Rev on occasion), the band display a head far older than their years with a knack of pulling unlikely hooks and catchy choruses out of nowhere to catapult a track towards the sky.
The triumvirate of early singles; the aforementioned ‘Out of the Question’, ‘She’s Got You High’, and ‘What Would Steve Do?’ are all present and correct here (and now on a travel ad on TV I note) and represent the three highlights of the album, although ‘Now or Never’ and mid-album peak ‘Song B’ (frenzied Bloc Party style romper) also offer urgent to calls to arms for kids in indie discos across the land.
Producer Youth has done a fine job here adding just enough weirdness and left-field flourishes to the mix to stop this from descending into the kind of pop peddled by bland-niks The Feeling. With surprises around every corner, there is no doubt that this could be the sleeper summer hit of 2007, and with hooks like this, the smart money is on it being so much more.
Guest article from Ben M.
Watch Mumm-Ra ‘She’s Got You High’.
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