Finest Funky Indie Rock
One chaotic sun-soaked, tank top touting anthem after another flirt merrily with your ears on, 'Swine and Cockerel'. The album takes after its visceral name with cool raw anthems like previous single, 'Sellotape', which sticks in your memory like its namesake and jaunty indie romp, 'Captain's Ship' bouncing right out of your stereo.
Incisive and snappy lyrics meet with a torrent of crisp percussion on tracks like surf-rock-tinged 'Whale!' and ferociously funky, 'Romeo'. Likewise, the guitar work is brutally tight and fretboards are blazing with hot riffs and chugging chords on each tune, with 'Funky Machine' an especially sparky example that is allegedly an ode to singer Lara's mother's finding a job. All I can say is that Lara's mother must be very hip to be the subject of such an over exuberant number and warrant a full throttle guitar solo - she must be very proud!
The ocean is a constant theme and the whole album feels like it could soundtrack a day of thrills and spills by the sea with its overpowering guitar grooves crashing over you like tidal waves. 'Wish Everything' takes a brief breather from the fast-paced action; 2 and a half minutes of upbeat, acoustic musing, the tune is not dissimilar to The Kink's classic 'Lola' in parts, with the same optimistic nuance throughout. 'Bag It Up' is panty-wetting punk rock at its finest with Lara screaming, "You've got to be uniquer" over thrashing indie guitars.
The Mighty Roars seem to spit out anthems at a riproaring pace of knots, even if some of them are admittedly fun, but nonsense, see 'The Muffin Man's chorus refrain of, "I wanna be with the Muffin Man, We're gonna live on Drury Lane!" While groups like Blink 182 whip up a punk rock frenzy in a similar way, The Mighty Roars seem to give it a chique edge, in comparison to Blink and Bowling For Soup's self-effacing stupidity.