The very promising MOLLY WAGGER are comprised of brothers Charlie and James Denholm with David Ayre (bass) and Edward Hulme (guitar). Charlie sings and James plays guitar. They started out in Edinburgh, and recorded this very sweet set of tunes in Muirhead. Scott Donald added some very good percussion throughout.
It's a protecting kind of music. Wisps of lighter Thom Yorke and gentle echoes of Sigur Ros in the first song "Weight" suggest a band with qualities and dreams that could bruise easily in their new London home. "Cigarette smoking in the rain" and "Mother calls from downstairs: 'Go to sleep'" ("Low", track 3) are so flagrantly not the city street that I blush for them.
The naivety is the charm, nonetheless. The music itself has a confident command. The band can play and Charlie Denholm's voice is steady, authoritative and controlled. The production seems to be more or less the demo line-up recorded with patience and care. Minimal supplements are present for most tracks. It gives the album a natural feel, but it does leave a feeling that the same songs could have been substantially tightened up and augmented. Second track "Steve" takes 24 bars (getting on for a minute) to get off the same standard 12 note lick before much happens.
"Weekend" at track 4 gets straight in with the vocal and is all the better for it. The tune is almost Burt Bacharach in its languid grace. At 2 minutes 24 seconds it makes the case well. It gives the chunkier "Able Mabel" that follows something to bounce off. And bounce, gently, is just what it does.
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"The Quiet One" has wider dynamic range. "Delilah" is not the Tome Jones hit, but an altogether gentler pastoral thing with acoustic guitars and a three four sway to it (boyfriend knife threat notwithstanding).
Penultimate track "Zuma" sounds very like the track that should have started the second album. Perhaps written later than some of the others it locates the Radiohead blip era with some nicely subtle rhythmic stuff and Charlie Denholm's voice rings at its most assured. Seven minutes is pushing it though.
"Muito Bem" has more of the synthesiser laid into the mix. Percussion and vocals get more interesting and a real start is made on catching up with where well-established (white US) artists like ANIMAL COLLECTIVE have got to in the last decade.
On balance, this has strong signs of being that later-to-be-revered "document of the first set", a more than creditable debut that indicates how much more could be on the way if they dig deeper. No one would wish hardship on a band, but a bit of adversity might temper their mettle for battles ahead.
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