REVIEW: mr.Gnome’s “Heave Yer Skeleton”
The moment I finished listening to mr. Gnome‘s last album, I knew that they would be a group I would become a fan of. They have returned with Heave Yer Skeleton (El Marko), and as I listened to this, I thought of a number of ways to try to describe what I heard. I’ll do that here.
For one, this is their second album, so terms like “sophomore slump” were roaming my head. The whole “it takes a lifetime to record a debut album, but only six months to do the second” thing was something that lurked too, but as I listened to this album, where the group continue on their dark and mysterious ways, there was no reason to second guess this. Before, I heard a group that wanted to establish themselves or at least say “hi, this is what we do. It’s unique, we like what we do, and we hope you’re an open ear to our creativity.” As I listened to this new album, vocalist Nicole Barille and musician Sam Meister realize there is a fanbase, one they hope will stay with them on what will hopefully be a courageous voyage towards their muse.
As a kid, you might be attracted to songs that are happy, poppy, and hopeful. In the adult world, mr. Gnome know that there’s little to no time for searching for happy, that if it comes, it comes. Maybe. In “Sit Up & Hum”, affection towards a loved one becomes less important than simply surviving towards the finish line of life:
I saw my lvoe growing older
Shut his eyes and called it over the end
I watched from far away
And as he was passing over
He loved down and across his shoulder
And he said, I love you anyway
Despite a somewhat omnious tone to this album, there’s hints of hope in such lyrics as “I’ll miss you more than you’ll ever know” (from “Vampires“) and “sailing through holes,we were running to my home” (from “Titor”. Vocally, a number of comparisons to Karen O. of Yeah Yeah Yeahs have apparently been made, and one can definitely hear a bit of that in Barille when a lyric or verse reaches a level of raised excitement. It also doesn’t hurt when a section of your song, in this case “Plastic Shadow” goes:
summer will fade, away… yeah yeah yeah
Cuttin’ the day away, away… yeah yeah yeah
Gimme the dark and gray… yeah yeah yeah
Letting me fade away… yeah yeah yeah
Yet within her style, I also hear a bit of Erykah Badu, particularly when she overenunciates a word for emphasis. This happens in the second half of the album, I’m not sure if that was deliberate or if that’s simply how things ended up, but it’s a contrast to how Barile sings the other songs, and it balances perfectly. As for the music, Meister is someone who is in control of what he wants to execute, and with an exchange of ideas between him and Barille, you hear their brand of pop, rock, and even a bit of lounge/exotica that somehow carves a different cave for their fanbase to explore. Meister is basically the canvas to Barille’s paint, one helps provide inspiration to the other and together they create something that might be a downer, but hearing it makes you feel anything but down. You might get that sinister smile when you hear a line that sounds like something that’s been roaming your mind, and maybe that’s what mr. Gnome are, nothing more than the earworms you’ve been wanting to get into your mind, and not out. I had compared them to some of the great music Siouxsie & The Banshees had recorded, and mr. Gnome are on that same level of intensity. I hope new fans will find them worthy of exploring, and if there comes a day when they will split off into individual adventures, I hope fans will want to explore those paths too. Until then, welcome into your daily life the earworms of mr. Gnome.
(SIDENOTE: You can also read my review of their 2008 debut album, Deliver This Creature, by clicking here.)
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