“Can you tell me why it’s always raining when I take you home?“
A band that should be on everybody’s radar by now, Leicester based alternative rockers, Mouth Culture, are back with new EP Whatever The Weather. Opening with their signature guitar tone delivering an identifiably indie riff, the EP sets off as it means to go on. The band holds no punches and launches into an irresistibly catchy number with “Dead In Love”, consisting of wonderfully fun riffs and a sing-a-long worthy chorus. It’s clear that the band know exactly what fans want from them and are here to deliver.
“No Shame” switches things up a bit and takes a more alternative approach somewhat akin to their contemporaries in Royal Blood. This track is much more moody in tone, with the bass guitar and drumwork being much more prevalent and allowing the whole band to shine. Vocalist Jack Voss adds to this moodiness with his vocal delivery, showing a level of restraint and allowing the band to do their thing whilst then exploding into the chorus with a heavier vocal delivery which really suits the feeling of the track.
We see this tonal change continue into “Little Wednesday”, which shows off the band’s emotional side both lyrically and tonally. Though it is lyrically quite basic, the delivery makes it undeniably catchy and it certainly helps to overlook the simplicity. This rings particularly true for the chorus, where each listen found me humming along more and more.
“I know you’ve had such a bad day,
I wish I could take it all away,
my little Wednesday.”
Sadly, the same can’t be said for “Happier”, which I found to be relatively lackluster in both sound and lyrical content. It feels thematically similar, but with more of an emphasis on the self rather than another person. The positioning of both tracks back-to-back only goes to exaggerate the problem, as it’s hard not to draw comparisons between the two. The track is by no means bad, it just feels out of place with it’s inclusion on the EP, especially with it’s positioning.
The closing track, “Everyday”, initially fell into the same pitfall for me, however, as it progressed I came around to actually find it quite beautiful. An understated track instrumentally, it’s clearly there to pull on your heartstrings, with vocalist Voss matching the atmospherics perfectly. Clearly written with intent to be a closer, the track slowly builds into an epic crescendo, before gradually tailing off to finish off the EP.
So, where does this leave Mouth Culture overall? Whilst it’s easy to brush them off as being relatively basic in comparison to other bands in the scene right now, it’s extremely hard to argue that they don’t consistently produce catchy and fun tracks. My main critique here would be the pacing and positioning across the release. I’d have loved to have seen one of the slower, more sober tracks replaced with something more akin to the opener to keep the energy up. With that said, nothing is particularly flawed and it’s certainly worth a listen, particularly if you’re a fan of pop-punk adjacent alternative music. This EP certainly shows the band has potential, and I for one can’t wait to see how they pull off their next album whenever that may be.
7.5/10
Mouth Culture‘s EP drops through InVogue Records and can be pre-saved here with merch dropping here.