Mannequin Pussy I Got Heaven
For their fourth studio album, Mannequin Pussy have decided to venture out of their comfort zone. As should be expected of a group that has been around for over a decade, I Got Heaven finds the Philadelphia band (consisting of Marisa Dabice on vocals and guitar, Maxine Steen on guitar and synths, Colins “Bear” Regisford on bass and vocals, and Kaleen Reading on drums) experimenting with their sound and composition. Rather than writing alone at home, the band convened in Los Angeles with producer John Congleton. Of this change, Dabice said “…this was shedding a lot of those hermit-like qualities to do something intensively collaborative. Your best work comes when you allow other people into it.”
While their brasher, punkier tracks may be the ones that more often come up on playlists (they are certainly the ones I am more familiar with) Mannequin Pussy has always been capable of toning things down. They start this record off with a title track that is anything but, however, as “I Got Heaven” comes ripping through the speakers — or headphones, and give it about ten seconds, I promise they aren’t broken. “If I wanted it you really think I’d wait for their permission? / For protection and assurances that all would be delivered?” Dabice asks as she rails against Christian hypocrisy, and also poses maybe the greatest rhetorical question of our time: “What if Jesus himself ate my fucking snatch?“
Mannequin Pussy in 2022 (photo by Kate Hoos)
By the third track the versatility of the band is really on display. “Nothing Like” is an undeniably poppy song delivered by a band capable of musical violence, in a way that reminds me of Smashing Pumpkins “Perfect,” although I find it disappointing the band turned to AI for the video. Things get even softer for the first half of “I Don’t Know You” before the interruption of some good fuzzy grime.
But lest you forget how to truly rock out, “OK? OK! OK? OK!” is here to melt your face while being treated to Regisford’s equally compelling vocals. “Of Her” and “Aching” are in the same vein; these harder songs are all in the second half and only given a break by the mid-tempo, dynamically changing “Softly.” (I have to admit the track listing on this album puzzles me.)
I Got Heaven features clean crisp production that is never too slick or overdone and allows all the instruments to stand on their own. The ingredient that ties it all together is as always Dabice’s vocals, with her command of everything from screaming howls to delicate melody. As she sings on the lead track “I got a loud bark, deep bite!” Overall it’s a solid outing with a few skippable tracks, and it’s nice to see the band trying new things. I Got Heaven is out now on Epitaph Records. The band will next play in NYC on 5/16 at Brooklyn Steel.