RECORD REVIEW: Mudgoose, Bird Tears (single) (2024)

RECORD REVIEW: Mudgoose, Bird Tears (single) (2024)

allow me to paint a picture for you. i’m sitting splayed on a couch in the corner of a cuba street flat. there’s long abandoned coffee mugs, half eaten dinners and ripped up gig posters lining the walls. around the room, neon coloured string zig zags in unclear patterns, mirroring the conversation that's drifting lazily through various topics. a terse roommate dressed in heavy metal regalia stares us down and leaves quickly. my presence here is tolerated mostly because i’m the only one who knows the secrets in Doom II. 

the man who i’m currently backseat driving through his digital demon murder spree is the songwriter and frontman behind indie rock's Mudgoose, who’s been beginning to enjoy some time in the sun as of late. his track, Where? is nearing four thousand spotify streams (“that’s my creep, man”, he confides to me later, “i wanna stop playing it to mess with people”) and his other single this year, Here Come The Planes, quickly became my go to shower singing song when i first heard it. he’s positioned in a chair inches away from the screen, with his back towards me and the three (give or take. various “names” on the wellington scene will filter in and out as this tableau unfolds itself) guests he’s currently entertaining in his apartment. we sit musing on the brilliance of the obscure Sparklehorse cut that serves as an unfitting yet poignant soundtrack for the violence for a while as we sit, motionless, focused on the screen.

eventually, it’s made clear that i’m some kind of a music journalist. a position that exists In name only, really, but i’m not above using what little cachet i have to pry where i otherwise wouldn’t be able to. our host relents quickly and i’m given permission to enter the Mudgoose studio and hear some new tracks. his room stands in stark contrast to the rest of the house, being almost devoid of clutter. in front of me sits a laptop, a cassette four track, a single microphone and a guild electric guitar festooned with stickers. there’s a book on Tom Waits on the windowsill, and an unopened cup noodle next to the bed. neatly organized underneath the stereo is an impressive selection of LPs from various Mudgoose influences. (at a glance, i can see the Soft Bulletin, some Dinosaur Jr, and a Daniel Johnston tape.)

the tracks i’m played in this room include the single i’m supposed to be reviewing today, Bird Tears. it’s a slow, organ driven track dripping with a wet kind of emotion that feels good for you, like soup, or a hot shower. it’s healing and vulnerable. it’s a song that feels reflective and genuine, but also obscured and shy (maybe because it’d take someone smarter then me to understand the lyrics behind the distortion, who’s true meaning i think is known only to the author of the song, not the author of the review.) it sounds like the end of the party when the sun starts to come up, the drinks has run out a long time ago, and there’s nothing left to do but be heartbreakingly honest with the people around you.

 

even if the chord progression owes slightly to both Spiritualized’s Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space and Yo La Tengo’s Autumn Sweater. Mudgoose’s crooned vocals and lofi production efforts evoke the feeling of listening to the voice of someone who you haven’t spoken too for a long time, and maybe it’s not your fault you haven’t been able to talk. if there wasn’t already a soundtrack to reading over a transcript of your own breakup i think it was just written. it’s a weird kind of melancholy that i enjoy wallowing in, at least for the duration of the song. and on repeat listens it’s still got the same emotional impact. time will tell if the full album this single is teasing holds up this level of quality (yeah, it does. i heard it.), but out of everything that came out this week (fuck, it does hurt me that i can’t heap praise on the new Feshh thing but i got other shit going on and they’re big enough on their own. Still, i hope this footnote convinces you to check that out as well), this is the one that got stuck in my head for long enough to get me to write about it. go buy it, buy copies for your children, and buy them extra copies to hand down to your children’s children, man. 

final score: *****/5