Is it a coincidence that the week after the Mammoth Penguins release their new album Here the sun has been shining non-stop in the UK. I don’t think so. There is something ineffably uplifting about their music and they use the holy triad of guitar (Emma Kupa), bass (Mark Boxall) and drums (Tom Barden) to incredible effect, knowing when to woo the audience with soft riffs and charming melodies and when to stomp the screws out of the distortion pedal and get the heartbeat racing. At the core of the album is Emma Kupa’s unadorned voice, utterly captivating and eschewing the usual tricks of turning up the reverb dial and doubling vocals; this is a voice that is front and centre in both sound and emotion.
Here follows on from the explosive optimism of 2019’s There’s No Fight We Can’t Both Win which saw the band on the cusp of surfing the world turning frowns upside down, something sadly curtailed by the pandemic. All the pent-up energy that should have gone into touring was instead funnelled into the band recording new tracks at their respective homes , something which led to a more collaborative approach to the writing and arranging.
Mark Boxall of the band says, “One of our goals for this album was for it to sound more naturalistic than our previous albums. We wanted it to sound loud and vital and noisy, and slightly heavier perhaps, but also honest and to show some of our workings. We did overdubs in Tom’s shed, recording percussion, backing vocals, guitars and a few synths and samples here and there, and let it have a looser and rougher feel. Recording simply in one room by just pointing a microphone and pressing the button meant it was less hi-fi than the sessions done at the Sickroom, and scuffed it up a bit.”
Emma Kupa from the Mammoth Penguins was kind enough to give Joyzine a pithy and poignant track by track breakdown of the 12 songs that make up one of this year’s stand out albums.
01. SPECIES
I wrote species when I wasn’t feeling great and was trying to think well what are the positives? What do I have and who am I important to? What can I be proud of?
02. I Know The Signs
Just all the stuff that happens when you’ve been in a relationship with the same person your whole adult life.
03. Flyers
I was going through some old boxes and came across a load of papers from gigs—posters, flyers and set lists. The flyers and posters were often really beautiful but then I also remembered how few people were there at the time and what a shame that was. All that effort by the promoters and the bands. I then started thinking about the other hard bits. It’s a slog being in a band; I really don’t understand why we kept going for years without anyone else encouraging us but we did. In that moment I picked up my guitar and wrote and sang this song with a simple few chords then when I took it to the band it became this angular power punk song.
04. Blue Plaque
I don’t know if it’s an only child thing or what. I don’t know if everyone wonders whether they are significant to the world but I have and slowly come to the realisation I probably won’t get a blue plaque when I die and that’s ok.
05. Everything That I Write
Transparency is important in relationships and sharing location can help one not worry when your partner is travelling home late at night. So this song is mainly about when someone has access to every part of your life and brain and then in the last verse I’m just complaining.
06. Here
Picture the first wedding in four weddings and a funeral. A marquee. It’s the end of the night and the band have finished but not packed down yet. I go and pick up a guitar and start singing this song. Slowly the band come back onstage and join in.
07. Nothing And Everything
When you’ve been close with someone for a long time they are so attuned to your body language and quirks you can’t even have a thought and sigh without them asking what is wrong ha.
08. Help Yourself
This one is about how it feels to have friends that are struggling, and no matter how hard you try to help them, they have to find some strength and will in themselves.
09. Old Friends and 10. Lost Friends
Another recurring theme on the album is friendship—old friends I only get to see once a year for a few hours, or new friends who have a friend visiting and you bump into them in the pub and have great chats, and then later you find out they died.
11. Success
Success is about finding a way out of feeling low by walking your dog (a cliché) and then about suffering from migraines and then about recovering from whatever knocked out your childhood self esteem and confidence.
12. A Plea For Kindness
Trans rights are human rights and this song is directed at transphobic people because I just don’t understand how they can be so hateful to other people and how so many of them have normal views in other ways but have been blindsided by this fast track to prejudice.
Mammoth Penguins Live:
May 23 – Cambridge – The Blue Moon
May 24 – Rainham – The Oast
May 25 – Coventry – Just Dropped In Records
May 30 – London – The Grace
May 31 – Oxford – Florence Park Community Centre
June 1 – Sheffield – Delicious Clam
Mammoth Penguins socials: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | X (Twitter)
Fika Recordings: Website | Facebook | X (Twitter) | Instagram | Bandcamp
Introduction by Paul F Cook
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