Mermaidens: Mermaidens

When Mermaiden singers Gussie Larkin (guitar) and Lily West (bass) talked with me independently about this fourth album, they spoke with one voice: they wanted an album that was bold, clear and distinct from much of their previous work which had grown out of studio jams.

That approach had worked well enough: their 2017 album Perfect Body was a Taite Prize-nominee; they were up for Best Alternative Artist at the 2020 Aotearoa Music Awards following their Look Me in the Eye album.

Now independent again after those two albums for Flying Nun, they step out with songs of sharper definition, mostly worked up from demos in Larkin and West's home studios in Auckland and Wellington, recorded with Phoenix Foundation's Sam Flynn Scott co-producing.

Mermaidens first single I Like To Be Alone could slip onto mainstream radio playlists alongside the Beths.

The jam-psychedelic end of their spectrum evident from their origins in Wellington a decade ago (an early song was the broody Stoner Battles) are hinted at (Foolish, the subtle Push It and dreamy Tear It Down) but constrained to favour a distillation of Pixies-like indie.rock (Sister), spiky post-punk rock (Sour Lips, Dress For Success), the appropriately titled Siren Song and an excursion into 80s electro-pop (the lulling mood of Greedy Mouth).

The confident clarity of Mermaidens delivers their typically inventive but accessible, diverse rock under a title consciously announcing a new beginning.

Mission accomplished.

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You can hear and buy Mermaidens at bandcamp here.