Label: Fiction Records
Released: 11th March 2022
Liverpudlian legends The Mysterines seem to have settled comfortably into the underworld over the last eighteen months. On their debut album, ‘Reeling’, they extend an invitation to join them in their shadow-shrouded other realm. From that very first riotous track, ‘Life’s A Bitch (But I Like It So Much)’, frontwoman Lia Metcalfe extends a hand from out of the dark depths and drags you headfirst into their deliciously reckless orbit.
Instinctual and unafraid, ‘Reeling’ flits from the unnerving to the elated. It’s treacherous and unsettling, at most on ‘Under Your Skin’, a track that captures the entire warped, disorientating tone of the album perfectly. Metcalfe’s vocals are crisp and yet taunting, luring you into each track with deft lyricism. Against a bedrock of frenzied, unrestrained guitars and angst-heavy percussion, the results are hypnotic. The Mysterines carefully craft a sound you could get deliriously drunk on and refuse to stop pouring until you’re uncontrollably in the midst of their sphere. As you wade through the spiralling, mystifying layers that make up the world of ‘Reeling’, it begins to seem like you might get lost in that sound forever.
They sit tempestuous acoustic moments like ‘Still Call You Home’ side by side with their more guttural, intensity dialled up to 100 offerings such as ‘Dangerous’. Despite the differences in tone, they capture a crucial part of The Mysterines’ sound and never lose the tenacity that is at their core. The weather forecast for ‘Reeling’ is relentlessly stormy and wild: it feeds into that impulse to stomp and rage and become your most ferocious self. The Mysterines certainly have.
