Great indie dream pop from Totally Mild brought to you by Bedroom Suck label who put out my favourite compilation from last year '5 Years of Bedroom Suck'. Totally Mild did in fact feature on that with a track called 'Take Today' which showed bags of promise. For once this is an album that fulfils that promise. Nonchalant, effortless, skilful, and teetering just the right side of amateurish, these are all characteristics that previously helped to make The Go-Betweens a truly great band.
'Christa' starts with doomy end of affair chords then brightens as it goes. 'When I'm Tired' is a relaxant that works its trick quick. 'Go Home' has a feel of 'The GB's' about it. Something in the rhythm and the chord changes. 'Move On' is a nursery rhyme for adults. 'Nights' is by far and away the longest track on the album and not even close to four minutes and it's kind of a downer but in a good way."All my nights end with all my friends dead". 'The Next Day' starts out with more of the same, "I'm in bed and I never wanna go outside again". Yup, know that feeling. And then the album starts working its way back up to the surface again. 'Battleship' is a cracking tune with a bit of crunch to it. 'Always Around' is straight out of some cool sixties movie and 'Money Or Fame' is sparse and cuts like a knife. And it has saxophone on it, so there.
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Really the two key facets of this album are the voice of Elizabeth Mitchell and the guitar of Zachary Schneider. The first is hard to describe so let's just say magical for the time being. The second is likewise difficult to pin down, so let's call it alchemical. A lot like The Smiths really, when I think about it. Some of you might like one more than the other and some of you might want one more than the other but right now this is a perfect storm. It would be great if it blew all the way over to England sometime.
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