Ahead of her second album, I Don’t Need Your Permission, which will be along in the summer, Mary Strand has hooked up with Soul Asylum guitarist Ryan Smith to bring us its first single to tease the audience and test the water. If you like the idea of a truckload of abrasive garage rock vibes crashing headlong into a coach full of infectious, bubblegum pop moves, you will love what comes crawling out of the wreckage.
Inspired by a disastrous holiday in the titular location, Strand snatches sonic victory out of the jaws of vacational defeat, turning what at the time must have been frustrating and wearying experiences into the stuff of humor. It is a case of, “Well, we can laugh about it now.” Although reading between the lines, there is also a “just go with the flow” air of acceptance, an embrace the chaos sentiment at work here too.
Guitars grind and groove, drums pummel the point home, and over the top, Strand and Smith (which admittedly does sound like a firm of London solicitors) duet, playfully bouncing off each other to reel off a litany of disasters.
Blending that vintage rock and roll strut that Weezer brought back in fashion with “(Just Like) Buddy Holly” with a suitably chaotic garage rock sound, I’d say that with a fair wind and a lucky roll of the dice, this is a song that should be everywhere by the time summer rolls around. Trust me, I’m a music journalist!
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[…] is that last point that Mary Strand addresses with her latest single, “For All of Us (Dear Taylor).” The Taylor of the title is, […]
[…] Mary Strand is great at writing slightly punk-fuelled, scuzzy indie-rock anthems, but there is always more going on than just music to have a good time to. A lot more. There is always a message, and her latest, “Least of All Her,” takes the sentiment that ran through her last release and amplifies it ten fold. […]