Marisa And The Moths – “What Doesn’t Kill You” Album Review
16th July 2024Back in May, All About The Rock were once again invited to Cardiff, to check out a band playing The Globe, by the name of MARISA AND THE MOTHS. (You can check out that review right here). The Reading-based rockers (Consisting of vocalist/guitarist Marisa Rodriguez, bassist/vocalist Liam Barnes, guitarist Alez D’Elia and drummer Alex Ribchester) formed in 2017, and they released their debut self-titled album in 2020 to the applause of many critics, fluttering their way into the lamplight.
With their modern take on grunge rock, coupled with Marisa’s impressive vocal prowess, they soon caught the attention of many folks within the UK’s alternative scene and were certainly ones to watch. Unsurprisingly as a result, this year saw their sophomore album “What Doesn’t Kill You” take the top spot in the official rock and metal albums chart, as well as breaking the top 20 in the overall albums chart; cementing themselves as one of the UK’s finest and brightest prospects. Let’s listen to said album, and find out once and for all, if what doesn’t kill you indeed makes you stronger…OK turn the lamp off first it’s distracting now…
The album introduces itself like Danhausen sliding from under the ring with “Cursed”, and its presence is pleasant; very nice, very evil if you will. It is a very Gothic-inspired piano ballad, with, at times, hauntingly hushed vocals. The string section is layered so very elegantly, and this reminds me of EVANESCENCE, with the powerfully emotive presentation of Marisa’s voice. So classical, dramatic, and a wonderful opener.
Things liven up a little more on track two, as “Get It Off My Chest” brings the riffs and the raucousness. The change in tempo wakes the listener up, as we blend grunge stylistics with melodic hard rock, coupled with a subtle Middle Eastern influence tonally. There’s a lot of vibrato in Marisa’s vocal here, a lot of well-held notes, she’s got an incredibly commanding voice, and with the additional growled backing vocals as the track draws to a close, it allows for an intense audio climax.
It’s a relatively lengthy album at sixteen tracks, and there are a couple of inclusions that COULD have been omissions to be fair. Let’s take “Wither Away” and “Pedestal” for example. The former houses a far grittier sense of rock ‘n’ roll swagger with a short, sharp, catchy chorus and angsty, almost condescending vocals, while the latter, utilizes a slower, plodding approach. Slightly bluesy in places, and Marisa again holds some lovely notes, but instrumentally here it is sadly boring, aside from that guitar solo. Redeeming to a degree but, not enough to salvage the track as a whole. I include these here not because they are terrible tracks, but because they are album remasters, taken off an EP that only came out last year. There is no REAL need for them on this album.
Other tracks I will include here, are “State Of Mind” and “Sense Of Self”. Now it is no secret that I’m not a massive fan of interludes personally. I’m not saying they don’t work, sometimes they can. Concept albums, transitional pieces that link tracks, musical stories, I understand they have a purpose, hell I use them in my own annual Spotify playlists to break up categories, using a pop-culture narrative. However, this could already be taken down to a twelve-track album, resulting in a more digestible listen.
Let’s not get caught up in negative semantics though, what else is enjoyable? “Fake It Till’ You Make It” embraces this lively sense of pop-punk energy; sounding a little more vibrant instrumentally but delivered with a certain maturity. “Gaslight” harbors this undeniable feeling of ALTER BRIDGE in its presentation, it’s easy to imagine Myles Kennedy wrapping his voice around this one. I think Marisa could go toe-to-toe with Myles on the microphone…quite easily. There’s a collaboration you never knew you wanted until now, you’re welcome.
Eventually, then, we finally finish up on “Lungs” and Marisa’s have surely been stretched over the course of this album. Deeper vocals…the last dying breaths of the record, they use more effective string instrumentation to draw out the track in further dramatic fashion, before the crackling of vinyl crawls across the finishing line, exhausted and needing oxygen.
I make it sound like a drag at times, but at sixteen tracks long it’s still under an hour of runtime, which is impressive, but it does at times FEEL longer than it is. The vocal quality is there, without a shadow of a doubt, Marisa is a TALENTED frontwoman, and the instrumentation is solid. They prove this EFFORTLESSLEY on the live stage too, with sound quality, clarity, and charisma. At the risk of sounding nit-picky, they could have sacrificed a small selection of tracks here, and maybe nailed one absolutely scorching single to really give them an extra edge. As strong a listen as this already is, the band could easily take it up a gear from time to time, and go from a safe, reliably good band to a great band in terms of content. One of the rare bands that sound as crisp and clear live as they do on record…again, the quality is there in abundance; Marisa and her moths just need to leave the lamp alone and go and write an anthem or two now. It wouldn’t kill them…
Score: 6/10
Track List:
- “Cursed”
- “Get It Off My Chest”
- “Borderline”
- “Wither Away”
- “Gaslight”
- “State Of Mind – Interlude”
- “Who Are You Waiting For?”
- “Pedestal”
- “Straight Laced”
- “Fake It Till’ You Make It”
- “SAD”
- “Serotonin”
- “Just Like Me”
- “Sense Of Self – Interlude”
- “Devil”
- “Lungs”
Record Label: Tonesick Records
Release Date: May 3rd (Available now)
