Labels: Big Print Records
Review by: Sion Thomas
Here is the debut album by British girl two-piece Maria And The Gay. This is a
mixed album of awkward, experimental, lo-fi indie. No surprise then it was
recorded in the bedroom of Maria. Greatest hits vol: 1 is a little all over the shop
in every aspect from song length and structure to the quality of the music. It
starts off with a terrible song called “Daddy Bulge”, I can’t really figure out what
they were attempting to do on this song. Everything about it seems awkward
and ill fitting, a repetitious programed drum beat annoyed me from the start and
the vocal patterns are just sparse and consist of the line “daddy’s bulge” being
shouted every 30 seconds or so. Luckily the rest of the album does not follow
this rather peculiar structure. The rest of the album is sort of cut into two kinds
of songs; on the one hand they play simplistic wire-esque songs, such as “mother
fuckers”, “I wanna be in a democracy” and “oh boy she moans” which have a
simple hooky distorted guitar line that the song is based around, then they sing
kooky lyrics over the top like “listening to this music is making me feel blue” and
pronouncing motherfuckers as motherfoooooooowkers. I do not like these
songs; they are too much like all that lo-fi indie that everyone seems to do at the
moment, which they think is all original and experimental but it is not. The other
sort of song on this album is more poppy and electronic based, basically the
songs that are based around the synth instead of the guitar. The stand out track
is “Berlin” it sounds like it could have come off the Sonic Youth side project
Ciccone Youth with its weird 80’s synth sound and pop ideals. “ I was only
passing by” is in the same vein but is slightly more Depeche Mode sounding with
its driving programmed drums. With “DIY goodbye” and “Doomed” they pull of
the moody synth sound perfectly.
To sum it up this album is muddy, messy and rough but not in a good way. Do not
bother with half this album but “Berlin” is a synthy pop gem and the songs that
sound like minimal wave are worth a listen.