mary in the junkyard – Role Model Hermit
The London-based trio mary in the junkyard’s debut album is a magnificent feat in angry, sad and fantastical folk-rock
mary in the junkyard’s prolific instrumental craft and lyrical excellence is proven instantly when Mantra III opens Role Model Hermit with its deep bassline, beautiful viola strumming, chaotic interwoven drumbeat and elegant poetry: ‘It is yours babe, you deserve it’. This repetitive phrase, shaped by the tension of each instrument, becomes less a proclamation and more a question: does this person really deserve the narrator's emotional labour?
Further into their debut, Crash Landing stands out. It begins with a haunting violin instrumental before frontperson Clari Freeman-Taylor shares the torment and heartbreak of a relationship fraught with toxic masculinity. Freeman-Taylor speaks about the song as being “about fear and how men often rely on keeping their emotions secret.” During the track she sings, ‘I can take your mask off, but only in the dark / And you won’t take your shoes off in case you have to run’.
Role Model Hermit is a magnificent feat in angry, sad and fantastical folk-rock in which the literary nerds' creation of a modern fable on Thou Shalt Sprout exemplifies their stunning poetry and the experimental sound that permeates the record.
Listen to: Crash Landing, Peter The Dog, Candelabra