Anomie is the recording project of Field Mouse’s Rachel Browne. With the help of some friends, she has recorded a self-titled EP that was written in the space of a week during a trip to California. As described by the Father/Daughter Records bio “What emerged was a time capsule for the experience – the music functioning as a therapeutic means to alleviate the heartache Rachel felt in the moment.”
Given the condensed writing period and short turnaround, you will not be surprised to hear that the EP is urgent and vibrant, loaded with an immediacy that is very difficult to feign. Opener ‘So Long’ is a great example of this, a 90s indie pop gem that explodes out of the blocks and continues with the fluid assuredness of a champion sprinter, the lyrics both strong and confident, Browne’s metaphorical gold chain jouncing with a determined rhythm.
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From here the EP decelerates. ‘Of You’ continues the 90s pop feel but has a forlorn edge, and by ‘Overnight’ the tempo crashes to form a track bathed in a melancholic moonlight. Closer ‘Funny Now’ is similarly plaintive, the guitars fuzzy and atmospheric and claustrophobic around Browne’s lyrics of isolation and remorse. Again the immediacy is clear, the wounds still open and wet and stinging like hell.
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Imagine Michael Johnson had stormed down the track at Atlanta but, instead of waiting for the medal ceremony, he kept going and going, gradually reducing in speed and energy until he eventually dragged himself up his staircase and locked the door to his bedroom and spent the next few days contemplating just how raw and sad and messy all this being human stuff can be.
You can buy the EP now from the ever-excellent Father/Daughter Records.