Jemma Freeman and The Cosmic One thing – Miffed (Trapped Animal Data)
CD/DL/LP
Launched 25 November 2022
Second album from cosmonaut hauntologist rock trio lead by Jemma Freeman – an incredible expertise who we featured earlier than in 2019 below the title Music is a Matter of Life and Demise. Solely they may name an emotionally tumultuous, unstable album like this ‘Miffed’.
Miffed?
The title is impressed to some extent by my maternal grandmother, who when completely furious at some perceived gross injustice would by some means compress all this rage into the phrase ‘I’m a bit miffed to be sincere with you’ which I now discover hilarious.
The enormity of the under-statement feels so suburban and English, its passive aggressive and dishonest, fails to acknowledge the depth or scope of somebody’s emotions.
For me it captures this center English apathy and powerlessness that has occurred with the pandemic, with lockdown, Brexit, all these catastrophic occasions that we’re powerless and inured to.”
Now that, is a reasonably complete account of why you’d name an album this panoramically raging, self-analytical, defiant and all-encompassing but scattershot, ‘Miffed’.
This album is all-over-the-place. Emotionally. Musically. Recorded studio-live. There may be leakage and suggestions. Noise and melody. Tempo and restraint. Insanity and calm.
It’s intense and I do know it’s sensible – I nonetheless have each religion in Jemma as an artist – however this can be a tough album to like. There are fantastic melodic, complicated songs that could possibly be light and whispered however then a squall of molten guitar will change the tempo.
It’s extra like a debut album – all the pieces thrown in and recorded with a mania. I do know it was lockdown and Jemma is neuro-diverse,’ I’m Autistic and have ADHD’ – however I’m taking a look at it objectively… to a first-time listener to the band this should look like a disorientating, manic-one-minute, tranquil-the-next expertise.
I known as them ‘genre-fluid’ after I wrote about Simple Peeler, a play on gender fluidity, Jemma makes use of ‘they’ as her pronoun… as a result of there may be psych, steel, glam, thrash, prog, people and pop components and influences which floor in a really seamless, pure means.
It’s a ‘punk’ album solely in the identical means as Suede’s Autofiction is: in its vitality and need quite than musical simplicity and uniformity.
an introspective journey by psychedelic glam-rock nightmares, woozy flows of self-discovery and beguiling lyrics delivered with subtlety and depth, the album covers themes of secret worlds, hidden agendas, apathy & nervousness, with Jemma’s sonorous voice telling a narrative of unravelling utterly and tying your self again up once more. Rising like joyous sci-fi warriors, the songs both overtly or not directly display solidarity with anybody that’s ever recognized feeling off kilter with the remainder of the universe and wanted an equally wonky sound-track to again it.
Alongside Samuel Nicholson (bass) and Jason Ribeiro (drums), the trio emerge as your astral guides on this unusual nation, illuminating a path, however in actuality they’re as misplaced because the listener. On this limbo, ideas tumble on high of one another by twisted rhythmic guitar, bass and drum traces that interchange and play with one another in a frenzied cosmic dance described as “Led Zeppelin fronted by Madonna”.
The Led Zep comparability is off-putting maybe however there’s a form of ‘Heavy Steel’ vibe about Miffed – however minus all of the previous cliches, then once more Jemma’s penchant for lycra biking shorts is barely a step away from going the complete spandex.
So far as comparisons go, I think about that I can hear Muse one minute and Sparks the following. The songs appear to circulate into one another in order that this can be a correct album quite than a set of singles. Jemma’s vocal tone does have one thing of the Madonna or Lauper about it – however her give attention to Miffed appears to be extra getting as a lot heavy psych guitar to drench the songs.
I’ve to be scrupulously sincere right here: Miffed is an album that I like, however to not the purpose of absolute adoration, like Freemans debut. Perhaps I haven’t given it sufficient listens on headphones for the songs to sink in. It could be to do with the very fact it appears rushed and under-produced – when in principle, studio-live, cranked-up guitar is a superb concept. Perhaps it’s simply too uncooked lyrically, emotionally and musically for me to deal with? I don’t know – but it surely occurs typically – an album you already know is sweet simply doesn’t click on.
Miffed is barely Jemma Freemans second album and it’s in all probability their second work of genius – it’s simply not an easy-peeler, it’s obtained so many layers and a lot depth that it takes a whole lot of effort and dedication to get to the center of it.
All phrases Ged Babey. Press launch content material in italics.
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