Long Neck is the bedroom pop/folk/rock project of Lily Mastrodimos (who also plays in Jawbreaker Reunion). Heights is, as far as I can see, her debut album, one which she wrote in that heady period during and immediately after college, a record which she describes as being about “coming to terms with an abundance of things and figuring myself out“. It was recorded in dorm rooms and her parents’ house, giving it that loveable DIY vibe, something which Mastrodimos captures in the Bandcamp blurb:
“This is by no means a perfect album, but it’s mine, and I’m proud. This album is for all of my friends, here, there, and everywhere, past present and future. This album is for my family. This album is for my dog.
For those of you who want some sonic comparisons, think the thematic content of Free Cake For Every Creature‘s last release, paired with Cyberbully Mom Club‘s at times fraught, on-the-verge-of-tears delivery, meets Two White Cranes‘s blend of slower folky bedroom pop and louder indie rock. Things are often personal and sometimes delicate and sometimes rough and energetic (something Mastrodimos owes to her work with Jawbreaker Reunion). I’m not sure what else to say, other than what you get is ten really nice songs that will probably make your day feel a little bit better.
The album opens with ‘Lullaby’, which slinks along at the start and threatens and threatens and finally explodes into life after Mastrodimos delivers the line “I want to believe there is something coming!” It’s a nice little moment and one I have found myself anticipating eagerly as I’ve been playing the album this past week or so. It’s one of those small sections of song that make you go “yeah!” to yourself and want to sort of wave your head about a bit. The track deals with post-collegiate crises of confidence and ego, of the fact that all us supposed “adults” are perhaps not quite where we’re expected to be. “We can talk about sex” she sings, “we can drink our 40s alone, but we’re still kids, fuck we are just kids”.
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‘Salt’ begins with gently tumbling guitar and flowing vocals, the closest thing to a chrous a series of echoey guitar interludes. It picks up speed throughout, ending in runaway fashion as Mastrodimos repeats the line “do you know if there’s salt for the frostbit?” The title track is an acoustic song with rattled percussion, part moving away song, part love song, at it’s best when at its most earnestly romantic, “When the world was spinning all too fast, I wanted to feel dewy grass / But the city scene across from the heights, filters out the stars at night / And this bronze and golden view, I want to share it all with you”. ‘Cetacean Nation’ is one of my current favourites and one of the tracks that really brought to mind CMBC. A half-sardonic, half-heartfelt ode to getting older, it comes complete with a chorus about sitting with your feet in a swimming pool and a Mr Rogers sample in the middle in which he asks,
“What does seem bad to you?
Is it hitting other kids?
Or calling them names?
Is it messing up a room?
Or saying no, no, no.”
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‘Ludlow’ has a frantic acoustic guitar strum, while ‘The Good & The Bad’ utilizes the quiet-quiet-loud-quiet dynamic really well. ‘Dogstar’ has strange lyrics and a ragged lo-fi aesthetic, opening with the line, “Someone took a needle to the sky, and kept missing the vein they were trying they were trying”.’Six Pack’ is a melancholy acoustic track (“You’re alone again, alone again, you don’t know why”), and ‘Hunger (Apology Song)’ switches things up with a flourish of lo-fi indie rock, in which Mastrodimos yells increduously, “This is madness! It’s cruelty! It’s fucking messed up!”, a sentiment I think everyone can relate to at some point or other. Closer ‘The Woods’ then changes suit again, this time a folk-flecked track with banjo and suitably woodsy lyrics:
“Too early fireflies, washed out by rain,
the bats flew far out and came back again,
they kept me company, and i was grateful for it “
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Heights is a really good album, and one which reflects life rather nicely, with moments of hushed quiet and moments of spiky energy, of worry and sadness and carefree abandon. It captures that feeling of creeping slowly over that threshold into adulthood and the revelation that it turns out not to be the whole new room you always thought, that growing up is an exhausting, exhilarating series of events that takes a lifetime to complete. You can get the album on a pay-what-you-want basis over at the Long Neck Bandcamp page.