1) Fleas; 2) Raccoon Song; 3) Evil Boys and Evil Girls; 4) Never Ending Thirst; 5) I Had a Great Time in the Trash; 6) I Would Eat the Moon; 7) Macaroni and Disease; 8) The World's Not Big Enough for the Both of Us; 9) God of Outer Space; 10) Maybe We Can Steal Our Neighbors' Cable; 11) Lemurs in the Walls; 12) Ferret Without Any Whiskers
An abundance of vocal harmonies and passion project energy - who know raccoons were such great songwriters?
Key tracks: "Macaroni and Disease", "Maybe We Can Steal Our Neigbors' Cable", "Ferret Without Any Whiskers"
In my completely sincere opinion, one of the most exciting ‘indie’ scenes happening right now (early 2020s, if you're reading this much later on) isn’t found in the persistently cool New York clubs or in Northern English factory towns, but within the borderless world of the furry fandom. The growth in recent years of what now falls under the vague ‘furry music’ umbrella has been a joy to witness, given that for the longest time the fandom's taste in music was practically synonymous with bedroom dance jams of various (and often dubious) quality. This past half a decade, though, has seen an influx of various styles of songwriters with cartoon animal personas rise from the fandom almost overnight, and there's a particularly strong subset of those musicians who seek their inspiration from early 90s alternative rock and singer/songwriters, and often the weirder side of that in particular. Many of those artists also go on to support others, with everyone collaborating and bringing their unique flairs into each other's music. It's like an offbeat version of the Elephant 6 collective - except with a chance of someone actually being an elephant this time. It’s a genuinely exciting scene of wildly talented individuals and promising upcomers, flying completely under the radar of most people.
I'm not necessarily saying that Swear I Saw Your Mouth Move is going to convert anyone to believe me just like that - for one, it still operates on a distinctly furry aesthetic that some less imaginative people are automatically repelled by - but it is one of the most charming and personality-abundant releases in the "scene" it's in, and an overall good representative of the sounds so much of this fuzzy invasion leans in on and what makes it such a fun movement to follow. I’ve Made Too Much Pasta - AKA lead figure Scurrow and his changing group of companions, on this record primarily the fandom superstar Pepper Coyote and the stalwart patron of furry music Bob Drake - play their ramshackle pop songs with big nods towards They Might Be Giants and R.E.M., thrown in a blender with Tiny Toons and run through a filter of creative eccentricity that makes that combination their own. There's an accordion serenade about eating the moon, a jubilant punk anthem about moldy food in the fridge, a stadium singalong celebrating stealing cable and a snappy slacker rock cut about two giant monsters beating the hell out of eachother, among other half-neurotic, half-charismatic stories and anecdotes ostensibly sung by a rabid raccoon. It's surreal and it's cartoony, but the music itself is backed by serious conviction and fuelled by the grassroots conviction of turning daydreams into something real. It's fun and at times funny too, but it takes itself seriously and has audible passion behind it.
There's a lot of great, neat detail to Swear I Saw Your Mouth Move. The songwriting is obviously a big thing, and Scurrow knows how to write a great hook. That knack more specifically shines in his vocal melodies. The lyrics are full of witty turns of phrases and so many of the utterances and anecdotes are hooks on their own thanks to how they're sung, with the carefully tethered manic energy looping through effectively sharp melodies. The songs themselves are all dressed up in a mid-fi, lackadaisical raccoon-core sound that nods towards its inspirations without ever really revealing a clear bridge to them (which in a roundabout way means that Pasta's sound is their own), but it's an eclectic set of tracks behind the aesthetics. Quirky solo cuts like the opener "Fleas" (with its brief organ coda being the album's first twist of many) pave way to full-blown trashcan bubblegum pop ("Raccoon Song", "Evil Boys and Evil Girls") and parallel dimension cartoon musical interludes ("I Would Eat the Moon", "God of Outer Space"). Beef up "Maybe We Can Steal Our Neighbors' Cable" a little and you'd have an alternative rock single that would've slotted just perfectly in an MTV rotation in 1992: by the time it gets to the handclaps and crowd vocals you've got a rock solid anthem at your hands.
The secret weapon of the album lies in its backing vocal arrangements, though. From the joyous rush of voices in "Macaroni and Disease" to Pepper flexing his a cappella arrangement skills in "Ferret Without Any Whiskers", the album is full of voices wondrously hollering and harmonising, accentuating hooks and highlighting melodies. They contribute a great deal to the album's joie de vivre and overall energy, balancing between a communal band jam atmosphere and meticulously planned vocal orchestral flourishes. The aforementioned "Ferret Without Any Whiskers" is particularly incredible all around - it's the closer that turns the album upside down and suddenly reveals a level of vulnerability that the rest intentionally avoids - and it's overall one of the album's very finest in music with those dreamworld parade breakdowns, the lyrics and the suddenly emotionally spitting delivery of them. But it's the rich vocal harmonies that make it a grand stand-out, haunting behind the lead vocals throughout until echoing alone through the instrumental bridge in a moment of brief but powerful poignancy. As a backing vocal junkie I'm always so excited to encounter an album that revels in them, and it's a big part why I've latched onto Swear I Saw Your Mouth Move so much.
There's this search for the Holy Grail that many music geeks seek to take, where they hope to find something that sparks with greatness that many others haven't yet found; as if you're uncovering a hidden treasure that speaks just for you. The furry music scene right now is the most consistent place in which I keep tapping into that high, and Swear I Saw Your Mouth Move is there at the forefront of discovery for me. It's endured as a set of
charismatic and potent - sometimes surprisingly so - songs that have
become a fixed part of the listening routine, which have burrowed their
way into parts of my head where they live rent free and pop out without
warning at frightening frequency. It's a delightful, inspired debut speaking with its very own voice I'm not hearing much elsewhere
Bonus points for the wonderful CD packaging, with a fun lyrics booklet and a full comic detailing the titular character's (yes, I've Made Too Much Pasta is a character name) backstory. It all adds to the labour of love charm of the album.
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