Mother Mother creates dark danceable magic with new album “The Sticks”

By: Sarah MacDonald –

Dance driven pop rock bands aren’t hard to come by these days; the tricky thing is finding a band, a record, or even a song, that can rise above the music machine that can manufacture it so easily. Mother Mother is an Vancouver-based energetic dance pop rock outfit that captures attention because of the sincerity and intricacy of their song production that stem from brutally honest lyrics and layered composition.

With their grounded, heavier fourth record entitled The Sticks, it’s a dark, rich and complex follow-up to 2011’s Eureka.

Opening track “The Omen” is the only song that seems misplaced on the record. It is a short, echoed, sinister song that creates superb rising tension with a piano but it doesn’t fit properly in the overall cohesion of the record. It leads into the equally sinister, and stronger track “The Sticks”, of which the album is named after. “The Sticks” sets the tone of the record, in that it isn’t just another superficial pop dance driven record like Eureka. It is more intricate than that.  “The Sticks,” is a percussion heavy song that gets you grooving but you’re grooving to a menacing presence that appears here and stays throughout the record.

“Love It Dissipates” is a beautifully crafted slow jam where lead singer/guitarist Ryan Guldemond croons over an acoustic guitar so jarringly, “if you were a housewife, I’d be your living hell.” The song provides such a unique sense of intimacy that you almost feel Guldemond breathing down your neck.

The ever so simple “Let’s Fall in Love” is an instant favourite. It’s cute, which some things should be. It begins with a slick synth intro that blends into layered harmonies in the chorus of “mommy did it, daddy did it” and, a personal favourite “even bitty baby Jesus did it.” Playful songs are seriously underrated. It’s a genius track because of the way in which it was crafted: it’s so simple in its repetition you’ll easily get hooked on humming it over and over again.

This record is a very promising entry into an already impressive discography for Mother Mother. It covers a blend of different genres (like the folk driven “Dread in My Heart”) and it makes the record interesting. You’re not bored by it. The one interesting part of listening to this record is how it will fare live. There is a direct energy link from each song to its listener and if you don’t dance your ass off then there’s something wrong.