The Marmozets of The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets almost certainly could’ve weathered an eight-year hiatus. The Marmozets who left things off on Knowing What You Know Now? They almost certainly couldn’t.
The thing is, that’s only, like, half-condemnatory. Yes, Marmozets’ debut was such an untouchable component of 2014’s alt-rock that their sophomore slump only highlighted more. But their absence from the scene has come with much greater reason that just a drop-off in spark. In the intervening time, vocalist Becca Bottomley (née MacIntyre) married guitarist Jack and had a daughter, spending the last few years raising her with the band on ice. It would seem an unexpected turn if this were the band from their heyday, no less because part of their initial appeal came from how young they were. If you were to guess the reason for Marmozets’ potential stall a bit over a decade ago, domestic bliss wouldn’t have been high up there.
Then again, you also can’t count out the serious ding in stock that Knowing What You Know Now brought for them. It was a fine album but largely forgettable, and failed to make the same quantum leap forwards as its predecessor. So, with that being their last impression and almost a decade of radio silence behind them, CO.WAR.DICE. almost feels like speedrunning everything back into place. Here’s a return trying to cram in everything relevant about Marmozets, past and present—newly matured, maternal perspective; alt-rock shocked with youthful vibrancy; a keen ear on how their scenes have shifted and changed in the interim.
On paper, all of those can be great. They probably are; you can make a sincere argument that CO.WAR.DICE. is where Marmozets have found their groove again. There’s a lot of effort put into this, which is what ultimately sees them over the finish line. And when you explore that through individual songs, there can be a lot to like. Marmozets going back to an electrified dance-rock style will always be good, now sporting influences from The Cramps and Devo that has Running With The Sun In Your Eyes and You Want The Truth snap even more sharply. As they branch out further still from there, you get the AC/DC-via-The-Strokes riffing of Like Last Night, and Swear I’m Alive and Dandy showing a gentleness hitherto unexplored to this extent. Even A Kiss From A Mother, rather underwhelming on first impact, has proven a real grower, not just for its Spaghetti Western opening sting but also how addictive its nerviness can prove.
So, that’s all great, right? Marmozets are back on top form again and worth the proper celebration? Well…
Look, CO.WAR.DICE. isn’t bad, but it’s even better as individual pieces. Put them all together, and the flaws practically spill out. It’s a consequence of the design space that Marmozets are operating within, huffing and puffing to put the wind back in their sails as fervently as possible. You can feel the effort to catch back up, so much so that the rougher, scraggly edges can almost feel untenable in this holistic form. As such, CO.WAR.DICE. plays like an album whose constituent parts are held together with staples and twine, sometimes not even discreetly.
Becca Bottomley’s voice leaps out there, where she’ll span some really refined, impactful moments reminiscent of her most galvanised, and a series of new styles that ring loudly as out-of-practice. The baby voice of Dandy and Like Last Night is a grating affect when it’s slipped into so readily and abruptly. It’s even worse on Flowerz, paired with drawn-out oversinging and the staticky, metallic filter that makes it clang that much more. Mes Désirs might be the most amateur-sounding of any of these diversions, though. Bottomley strives for an operatic delivery that’s more shrill and unkempt than anything, and alongside the track’s baritone, downward-facing guitar, any possible homage to The Last Dinner Party that was intended starts feeling more like a send-up.
Of course, the watery vocal mix doesn’t help (even soddening the best tracks, frustratingly), though the production problems on CO.WAR.DICE. are more endemic than just that. You’ll notice blown-out production as a norm, leaving the singing on New York fighting for space and Running With The Sun In Your Eyes dampening a really good chorus with its distracting drum crunch. In the guitars, too, there can be a rigidity that’s difficult to overlook. Even if the dance-rock it petrifies into on the likes of New York and especially Cut Back can save itself, it’s practically by force. In simultaneously grabbing for new wave, post-punk, garage-rock and the more tuneful end of noise-rock, Marmozets (unsurprisingly) walk away in blaring, just-about-workable fashion.
Again, all of this really comes to light through CO.WAR.DICE. as a body of work. It’s hard to pinpoint why; new issues don’t just magically appear. Perhaps it’s the feel of Marmozets desperately trying to get revved up again, subsequently allowing crack upon crack to accumulate and wind up being more noticeable. Maybe for a positive spin, you could call it Marmozets’ combustibility struggling to stay in containment. There is some of that old excitability back on CO.WAR.DICE., and across everything that’s been brought in, the band tend to seem comfortable. Songs like New York and Running With The Sun In Your Eyes can retain their old, messy youthfulness with the bit between its teeth. Dandy is the complete opposite as a serene, almost explicitly motherly ballad, which Becca Bottomley has acclimated to just as well. Even on Flowerz, a song that’s generally no good at all, a line like “skinny as a Belgian French fry” on the chorus has no choice but to anchor itself in your mind for the foreseeable future. Keep Going Darling is the shot for the stars, though—a seven-minute closer, styled in driving rock-anthem form, in which Marmozets plough forth with unflappable tenacity for by far CO.WAR.DICE’s most impressive turn.
All of that put together leaves this album’s pivotal question: was the eight-year wait worth it? …sure? What came from it isn’t as unremarkable as Knowing What You Know Now, nor a swift return to their debut’s skyscraping heights, but Marmozets are back on a form, anyway. They’ve essentially made sure there was never an alternative, such is the sheer, uncut gumption on display that’s so definitive of what CO.WAR.DICE. is. It’s a reemergence into an unfamiliar rock landscape, kicking, screaming and demanding its old spot back, and to an extent, it gets there. But there’s also the side that so overwhelmingly can’t, and that’s nearly just as visible. The live environment that Marmozets have always excelled in will probably do wonders for this (just as its solo cuts are easier to digest wholesale), but at the moment, CO.WAR.DICE. is caught between being impressively conscientious, and throwing in too much too quickly. Still, if there’s one thing that Marmozets needed for their return above all else, it was a big swing like this.
For fans of: Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Bad Nerves, unpeople
‘CO.WAR.DICE.’ by Marmozets is out now on Nettwerk Music Group.
Words by Luke Nuttall
