Yorkshire rock royalty return with relentless third – their first in eight years – ready to take on the world again.
In late 2018, Marmozets embarked on what would turn out to be their final tour. Supporting You Me At Six on an all encompassing arena show, it would be a year of endings – and beginnings.
A sharp sensibility to boisterous gravitas and infectious hooks, Marmozets were a lightning-in-a-bottle kind of band. Their debut in 2014, aptly titled ‘The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets’, shook the foundation and rocked the worlds’ biggest stages with their huge, hook-filled melodies. They ventured deeper with their bolder follow-up Knowing What You Know Now in 2018 stirred up enough noise which saw Marmozets become circuit staples and go-to festival slots overnight. Their heavyweight anthems, decked out with Becca’s blood-curdling vocals, had floored all who had managed to catch a glimpse during their four-year outing. Then, just like that they were gone. As fleeting as a breeze. Marmozets would be nothing but a distant memory, etched on venue bathroom stalls by fanatics and thralls of live highlight reels fond Reddit posts littered online to a band that once was fritting the halls of rock.
Or so we thought. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Marmozets’ return after seven years away proves that point. Soon the flurry of excitement on socials all but confirmed that those sought-after rumours were true. Marmozets were back.
After becoming parents and settling into a new chapter of life together, vocalist Becca and her husband, guitarist Jack Bottomley felt high time to return to another adventure that had been put on hold. Here, they cement their return with their third record, ‘CO.WAR.DICE.’ While the record was risen from an impromptu Friday night jam out of the blue, it can be said that this had been a long time coming.
Taking time to reconnect with one another entering parenthood – aswell as navigating a pandemic in its midst – the Yorkshire alternative rock royals are back and ready to plough on. As loud and as unrelenting as before, it’s almost like they never left.
Of course, the long-awaited record still recoups some of that OG Marmozets sound that we fell head over heels for twelve years ago. Now, it’s wrapped in a punch that’s been ready and waiting for the better part of eight years – and it’s release is as deafening as the cutting music strewn all over this album. Becca’s roaring vocals feature just as strong as ever, as do the jagged riffs of guitarist – and husband – Jack. Becca’s drummer brother Josh Macintyre helped bring demos to life on the tubs while her other sibling, Sam Macintyre took to bass forming a newly-adapted lineup of space and power. The ensemble is a full family affair. A dream for most – a nightmare for some – it’s this refuelling sense of connection that has brought both new sound to a new vision.
When initially released a few months back, new songs sparked the right kind of reaction. Championed by fans and media alike, Western adventure saloon-door-swoon ‘A Kiss from a Mother’ was a heroic anthem and the perfect introduction to this new chapter, as she doffs her cap to motherhood the only way she knows how. Screaming incredulously into a mic. While this track was the first glimpse of new Marmozets, it was the follow-up ‘New York’ that was actually written first. A thrilling homage to an eccentric city, ‘New York’ spirals into a heinously addictive template of fresh sound all the while capturing that ’70s punk energy fresh from downtown. Talking of sonic earworms, the buzzy uncompromising ‘Cut Back’ is another prime example while ‘Running with the Sun in your Eyes’ wades in synth-heavy groove that’s just as beguiling. Backing up a stone’s throw, ‘Swear I’m Alive’ peels back the fire for a slower pacing while the dream-pop acoustics of ‘Dandy’ reveals a band who in their age, have now seen a completely new and exciting side to life’s beauty. Syncopated ‘Like Last Night’ upkeeps the tempo, while ‘Flowers’ is a contender for their most immediate moment to date with a sonically-conscious weapon of ups and downs, some may call it an unrelenting hell-raiser. The records’ epic closer ‘Keep Going Darling’ is an experimental doozy for a band who, may be their most confident now but at one point, may have not been. A inspirational surge of perseverance post-maternity, this noted point of reference, however steadfast in its final form, was a band having to work it out all over the again. As the last ethereal tones ebb away on the final track on this long-awaited project of theirs, it sounds like those ill-fated kinks of theirs were definitely seen to.
Vowing to leave the world in a better place than you found it in, CO.WAR.DICE is a ferocious reprise of a band reeling off cold-cut classics, fanciful surprises and fragile pauses that cap off a remarkable return so sorely welcomed.
Beyond their headline dates which sees them hit London’s Scala on June 11th and Sheffield’s Foundry on the 4th, Marmozets also have a summer of big outdoor shows confirmed. They hit London’s Finsbury Park on July 3rd as part of a stacked bill before headliners Biffy Clyro.
mvm 
Leave a comment