What’s New Weekly- Mutemath

By Bec Legato

Welcome back! In case you missed my first blog or if you forgot, I made it my New Year’s Resolution to discover a new artist each week. If you didn’t read my review from last week, make sure to check out my look into beabadoobee! For this week though, I checked out a band called Mutemath. 

I discovered Mutemath through my roommate who blasted one of their more popular hits, “Hit Parade” for me when we were supposed to be studying together. We didn’t get much studying done but the instrumentals in that song were so perfectly culminated that I felt like it would be a crime not to check out the rest of their discoverography. 

Mutemath is an alternative rock band duo which was founded by Paul Meany and Darren King, before King ultimately left the band in 2018. Meany continued the band as a solo group after the departure of King and continues to develop his sound. Mutemath has taken influence from 1960s and 70s soul and psychedelic rock, shaping their own genre of music that’s a mix between alternative and psychedelic. 

Mutemath’s sound began as something similar to alternative rock but their 2017 album “Play Dead” has this giant shift in sound and genre to more of a psychedelic rock sound. “Hit Parade” opens their 2017 album and if I had to choose one song to recommend, it would easily be that song. The chorus’ beat drop is the definition of satisfying, it relieves this inner pressure that’s been building up for the entirety of the song leading up to the chorus. The instrumentals easily overshadow the vocals in this song. They use the instruments to control the lead up and resolutions that happen multiple times over the course of the song. 

If there was one album from Mutemath you were to listen to, listen to “Play Dead.” It’s their most recent album of new songs and by that point, Mutemath created their own individual sound and it is the last album with both King and Meany.

From Mutemath’s EP, “Spotlight,” the most notable song from the album is the one in the name, “Spotlight.” It seems like more pop than any form of rock but the drums drive forwards the song and it’s a great piece to bop your head to. The other songs on the album, “Clockwork” and “Earlylight,” aren’t necessarily bad but if you aren’t interested in going into a deep dive of Mutemath, stick with “Spotlight.” 

The best example of their alternative rock sound is a song from the album “Odd Soul,” the song is called “Blood Pressure.” Released during alternative rock’s prime, in 2011, Blood Pressure is a perfect example of Mutemaths flexibility of sound. Looking at the lyrics, it focuses on the pressures that weigh on a person, comparing the physical blood pressure to the religious pressures that Darren King had as a child. 

King talked about the meaning of the song with the Huffington Post saying that “we would go to these Christian youth events…there would be a lot of talk about becoming God’s army…I felt a lot of pressure, and you feel a lot of pressure as a kid to change the whole world. As a teen, you felt like you had to change the people around you and make everybody else just like me…it can wear you out a little bit as a kid, and I guess that’s what that song is about–getting worn out with not feeling perfect and trying to make everyone else perfect too.” 

Overall, they weren’t my favorite artists that I have discovered, but I will continue to listen to their music and I highly suggest, if nothing else, to check out their album “Play Dead,” each song on that album is perfectly created and the instrumentals are some of the best I’ve ever heard. 

Sources: Genius Lyrics | Wikipedia | HuffPost