I’ll keep this brief to fit Mannequin Pussy’s style. Clocking in at just over 25 minutes, the Philly four-piece’s third album, Patience, doesn’t exactly linger around.
Given their name and attitude, I had been expecting a similar sound to the Riot Grrrl. While they’re able to rock even harder than their ’90s counterparts, their Epitaph debut is loud and noisy and nothing else.
A major problem is the mixing. Pitting gluggy guitars and mean singing against each other, the vocals get lost into a muddy sludge of garage rock. I know this is punk, but recent efforts from IDLES and Amyl and The Sniffers have shown you can go nuts and still have depth in the mix.
The only standout track here is the radio friendly “Drunk II,” which sounds like it could be played over sweeping shots of a college campus in a ’90s teen movie.
Mannequin Pussy’s mishmash third album proves that loud and noisy isn’t always a good thing, but at least it doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Score: 🌎🌎/5
Brendan is an avid record collector from Adelaide, Australia and the man behind the @ridges_and_grooves. There are few genres he won’t listen to. His search for the best album of all time through process of elimination continues.