- Release Info -------------------------------------------------------------- -
Artist: MOURN
Album: HA, HA, HE!
Label: Captured Tracks
Playtime: 26:04 min
Genre: rock
URL: http://https://mournct.bandcamp.com
Rip date: 2016-06-10
Street date: 2016-06-03
Size: 51.76 MB
Type: Normal
Quality: 263 kbps / 4410Hz / Joint Stereo
- Release Notes ------------------------------------------------------------- -
"Four nerds playing music and shit at the doors of hell."
Another good Captured Tracks release!
MOURN's self-titled 2014 debut LP gave the world an interesting idea:
Catalonian teenage wunderkinds making authentically great guitar-based music
in an era where it's considered almost unfashionable. Since that period, the
band has faced some very real issues, both personally and professionally,
things that 17-to-20 year olds normally don't have to worry about. When
dealing with such a youthful band, you worry about how they will live up to
the early attention as it begins to dissipate. Upon hearing Ha, He, He! for
the first time, it turns out, we never needed to look forward to MOURN growing
into a great band; they already are one.
As the opening bars of ôFleeö gallop into ôEvil Dead,ö itÆs instantly evident
that MOURN will continue their speedy ascent from local curiosity into an
international band on the rise. Ha, Ha, He! is sonically deep, heavy and
manages to retain all the immediacy of their successful debut MOURN. It's one
of those rare records where you watch a band's level of sophistication grow
leaps and bounds without losing the foundation and simplicity of what made
people take note in the first place.
Ha, Ha, He! has all the twists and turns of Post-Rock from its Chicago heyday
bolstered by the melodic quirkiness of a new influence for the band, Throwing
Muses. On "Brother, Brother" and "Howard," we see MOURN through a pop lens:
undeniably catchy, but intricately performed and still somehow "heavy." This
is a band that can play around with the pop format in a way that doesn't
degrade their songwriting talent to the lowest common denominator. Not an easy
task. Further on, the track "Storyteller" goes on it's own trip through
downtempo drudgery, into a melodic bridge, and concludes with anthemic
sing-screaming. On the equally challenging-yet-beautiful "Second Sage," it
becomes apparent that MOURN have begun to carve out their own niche and their
songs are no longer fits of inspiration indebted to their heroes, but just the
band being themselves.
The penultimate ôIrrational Friendö takes its chorus, ôHa. Ha. He!ö from
William BlakeÆs ôThe Laughing Song,ö a poem from his Songs of Innocence and
Experience. Much like the poem itself, the song is sort of a last gasp of
screaming laughter on an album that's marked in real time. You can sense the
band working through their experiences as a group of young and talented people
entering their 20s. They face a future that can be equally rewarding and
cruel, with respect to their career in music as well as life in general.
- Track List ---------------------------------------------------------------- -
01. Flee ( 1:37)
02. Evil Dead ( 2:13)
03. Brother Brother ( 1:48)
04. Howard ( 1:56)
05. The Unexpected ( 2:36)
06. Storyteller ( 2:30)
07. Gertrudis, Get Through This! ( 2:38)
08. President Bullshit ( 1:36)
09. I Am A Chicken ( 2:13)
10. Second Sage ( 2:05)
11. Irrational Friend ( 1:26)
12. Fry Me ( 3:26)
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -