album by Mormon Toasterhead
There are a lot of really catchy songs buried inside A Different Letter.
And I mean buried.
Mormon Toasterhead makes classic lo-fi music filled with hiss, distortion, muddy guitars, ambient sounds and vocals that sometimes seem to be coming from another room. Listening to the album can feel like hearing music on an old radio when you can’t quite get the signal right.
Underneath all that fuzz are real hooks. Great guitar riffs. Dreamy harmonies. Indie rock, pop, folk, noise and bits of 60s rock keep poking their heads through the haze.
“brain tattoo” introduces that sound immediately. It has the kind of recording quality where it sounds like the music is being played in a closet while the recording machine is sitting somewhere outside the door. The electric guitar is tight, everything is covered in fuzz, and there’s a Ween-like experimental streak running through it.
“The Tree That Hugged Itself” has a lighter guitar riff underneath all the crunch. Multitracked vocals create these dreamy harmonies, except everything remains so distorted that it almost sounds like you’re listening to the song underwater.
“A Becoming Smile” is my favorite track and probably the most straightforward indie-rock song on the album. It opens with a great guitar riff that immediately hit me in that sweet spot.
“Chrysanthemum” gets twangier, looser and a little more chaotic while the vocals maintain that dreamy quality that runs through much of the album.
“Stain God” pushes further into ambient noise, samples and vocal modulation. There’s a bit of alt-country buried in there too, trying to fight its way through the haze.
“Keeping Tabs” has one of the cleaner guitar sounds and a really nice melody. It’s catchy indie rock with the vocals still surrounded by fuzz, until a primal scream suddenly tears through the middle of it.
“The Door” is basically pure noise. Effects and artificial sounds take over for a short ambient piece. Then “Burning Bush” starts with another great riff and settles into one of the album’s more accessible indie-rock songs. The multitracked vocals give it a dreamy pop quality, with a little 60s rock hiding underneath.
“The Only Fish” is gentler and more peeled back. Sharp little guitar parts replace some of the heavier layers. “Honey Stick” cranks the distortion back up around this almost circus-like melody that rises and drops. There’s something wonderfully irreverent about it.
“West Virginia” is a sparse instrumental before “New Car Smell” returns to fuzzy, crunchy indie rock. Sharp guitar cuts through while the vocals remain buried somewhere underneath.
“Savior” comes close to something dreamier, almost approaching shoegaze in spots, but it never becomes light enough to float away. The fuzz and haze keep dragging it back down.
“A Different Letter” has a catchy pop song in there with a cool guitar riff and hints of early 60s rock, but Mormon Toasterhead surrounds it with distortion, whistles, noisemakers and other sounds that keep popping up in the background.
It’s weird.
It’s also really catchy.
That sums up my experience with A Different Letter. I kept finding hooks, melodies and guitar riffs through all the hiss, fuzz and distortion.
It’s a cool little noisy lo-fi album that keeps you on your toes.
Verdict: Worth a Spin
Explore more from Mormon Toasterhead
Leave a Reply