Grabbing the mic and screaming directly into it until your lungs give out at a basement show is one of life’s simplest pleasures, and that’s exactly how it feels to listen to Hello Mary’s sophomore album, Emita Ox. Teaming up with Alex Farrar, the producer behind some of the best indie rock of the past five years (Wednesday’s Rat Saw God, Indigo De Souza’s All of This Will End, Snail Mail’s Valentine and Squirrel Flower’s Tomorrow’s Fire, just to name a few), the New York trio’s ambition and virtuosic musicianship fell into the right hands.
Running elements of post-punk, prog rock, and shoegaze through a blender is a delicate task that Hello Mary execute flawlessly. “0%” is a sharp left turn from the much more straightforward indie rock that made up the band’s self-titled debut. Bassist Mikaela Oppenheimer is the star of the track, with a deep and distorted syncopated bassline that gives way to sharp, punchy drumming from Stella Wave. “0%” is simultaneously immersive and unpredictable from the jump, with a bait-and-switch intro of clean and airy electric guitar that transitions into the second leg of the song, where Wave screams her guts out with a mantra that plagues everyone in their early 20s: “I don’t know.” The dynamic climax slows in the song’s final leg, introducing gentler, steady guitars and an always-welcome inclusion of mallet percussion layered over all of it.
Both “0%” and “Float” expertly set the tone for what’s to come on the rest of Emita Ox. Limitless creativity and youthful personality are the backbone of the record, and the tracklist wastes no time proving that. “Float” opens with a haunting guitar lick and gorgeous vocal harmonies from the trio, setting up Wave’s impeccable drumming again for a climactic throughline. The black midi-esque outro is brash and cathartic, with each member pulling their weight in stride—an attribute that remains across all 11 chapters.
Hello Mary have already been accruing comparisons to Radiohead, that of which are far from unfounded. “Down My Life” sounds like it could’ve been on In Rainbows because of its flowing, arpeggiating guitar melody and bold, but understated drumming. The bass performance from Oppenheimer is endlessly memorable and integral to the track’s effectiveness. “Three” is similarly rich, bringing back the mallet percussion introduced in “0%.” The song’s gradual build is immensely rewarding, as a delicate piano solo floats above the rest of the band vamping in a wall of distortion and fuzz. The eccentricities that Hello Mary set out to capture on this album could have very easily been bungled, and Farrar’s engineering doesn’t just prevent that, but it captures the band’s creative vision in a way that refuses to compromise immersion and intricacy.
The less-than-common time signatures of Emita Ox’s first half don’t come off as gimmicky whatsoever. The back half of the record finds the band playing around a lot with time signatures, whether it’s “Footstep Misstep” largely in five with several stray bars in different meters, or “Bubble,” bouncing back and forth between 6/8 and 4/4, Hello Mary never want you to know their next move.
The lyrics on Emita Ox are often vague, but come off instinctual in both their content and delivery, but even then, what lacks in lyrical clarity is made up for by expertly crafted sonic landscapes and intricately composed instrumentals. The exception to that rule is the record’s emotional centerpiece “Knowing You,” a liberating and cathartic epic of heartbreak. “Take it from me / Hope you learn from this / Take it from me / Knowing you, you won’t,” Helena Straight cries over distorted guitars. The trio are savants of dynamic contrast, which specifically works on “Knowing You” to bolster the frustration present in the lyrics. The lighter verses display melancholic disappointment (“Easier now that it’s through / To see it in everything that you do / Replaying sounds of us / Shame you went and drained us of trust”), with the aforementioned chorus switching gears into bitterness and contempt.
Wearing both their influences and their sheer talent on their sleeves, Emita Ox proves in excess that Hello Mary are deserving of every bit of buzz thrown their direction. Straight, Wave and Oppenheimer have a talent and vision that are already fully developed. And they’re still just getting started. The genres the trio champion have been a boys’ club for far too long, and if all is right in the world, they’ll be reclaiming it as a new generation of talent find their way into our ears.
Read our recent feature on Hello Mary here.
