Alanna McArdle spends most of her time playing guitar and singing with Cardiff noise-pop outfit Joanna Gruesome, a band who have carved a niche mixing My Bloody Valentine-style fuzz with riotous punk thrash. This solo release, comprised of demos recorded during 2012 and 2013 in various bedrooms, is something altogether different, dialing down Gruesome’s noise and resulting in something much more intimate (think Sarah Winchester meets Psalmships by way of Florist, Kissing Fractures and Cyberbully Mom Club). Luckily for us, McArdle handles the switch from punk rock to minimal acoustic with aplomb.
On Reticular McArdle’s vocals are noticeably more delicate and fragile than we’re used to. Well, except for when they’re not. Sometimes they’re barely more than a whisper and others they’re delivered with considerable force. It isn’t as raucous as her usual work, but it’s suffused with a different sort of energy, hushed and restrained but also an exercise in fierce personal expression. This is a great example of what has come to be known as “bedroom pop”, the antithesis of the over-produced, smart-ass music that has become so prevalent, even in the so-called indie scene.
The EP opens with ‘You’re a Disease’, a lonely-sounding acoustic track that seems to explore the end of something. The chorus of “It’s in your blood, so it’s okay if you hate it, but passing it on isn’t my fault, so don’t hate me” ends with a sucker punch of a final line, “Are you scared? Don’t be”. Somehow those five words capture a sense of forgiveness and kindness that elevates the song far beyond the usual break-up fare.
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What follows is four more tracks in this vein, including a great cover of Perfume Genius’s ‘Take Me Home’, a track which suits McArdle’s style perfectly. But my current favourite is the final track, ‘Snow’, which for all the melancholy is actually a beam-of-light love song. McArdle sings:
“I’m moving soon and things will get better
while you’re clearing out your room, lamenting the weather.
And it’s been seven years, when you thought you lost me
I’ll stay right here, whatever it costs me
My love for you is endless, make sure to remind me
how I can get through the night”
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What I’m getting it is that this is the sound of somebody who’s trying. There is a very real danger when people full of feelings pick up guitars in quiet bedrooms that they make something cynical and (quietly) destructive. But this isn’t like that. If you’ve read Wake the Deaf at all in the past you’ll have probably figured out that most of our favourite music can be applied like a salve. We like sad songs for not completely sad people, songs shot through with hope, something for every single one of us to hold on to. And that’s why I like this little EP so much. How could you not love a record that ends with the words “It’s alright?”
You can get Reticular on a pay-what-you-want basis over at the Alana McArdle Bandcamp page.