Momma know their place and they aren’t afraid to remind everyone. It’s a daring move to call your album Household Name, but their confidence isn’t without justification. Three albums in, Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten’s alternative sound is refreshing, with their engrossing guitar melodies and harmonics feeling like you’re discovering an old favourite again. Blending ’90s influences like Green Day and Pavement, Momma are pushing against the wave of soft pop with raucous indie rock.
The production on Household Name is incredibly sleek. This is the first record for Momma where the full band has had reign over the studio. Spending more time working together shows a more polished side to Momma where they can show over their guitar prowess. The riffs on ‘Rockstar’ capture the essence of the track to a tee. This space has given them more to play around with. The intro to ‘Rip Off’ has a tinge of Red hot Chilli Peppers’ ‘Californication’, whilst you can hear the ignition of the red car that graces the album cover on ‘Speeding 72’.
Their time on stage has given them valuable experience, and they’ve established themselves on both sides of the Atlantic. ‘No Stage’ rumbles along with deeper guitar melodies but doesn’t take itself too seriously either. A ripple of applause echoes in the closing seconds matching the loneliness that can follow being the one on show.
Where their sophomore album Two of Me flowed off the back of being a concept record, Household Name bathes in a personal light. A breakup for Weingarten and finding a special love for Friedman, the duo were experiencing extremes of the heart. Falling for whiskey shots and traveling from east to west, Momma are preserving their lovers for better or worse. They’ve retained a lyrical approach to their reality which they showed previously through their fiction, and it makes the record sit nicely amongst their discography.
