ALBUM REVIEW: Motel Rooms – Mother Island

MOTHER ISLAND, the surf-psychedelia band from Italy, have just released Motel Rooms, their third full length release. This album sees a polishing in their sound, which is not necessarily an improvement on the previous full-length, but nevertheless is another strong album to add to their discography. A more measured release than previous album, Wet Moon, this album has lost a little of the fun and spontaneity, but this should not stop you from listening. MOTHER ISLAND has such a solid sound and fully-formed image that it’s honestly baffling why they haven’t made it big yet. 

Each song is perfectly crafted, balancing the more light-hearted, colourful guitar parts with killer melodies and riffs you won’t be able to help yourself but sing along to. They sound a lot like TEMPLES and SUGAR CANDY MOUNTAIN, but with the attitude and edge of bands like BLUE PILLS. And the vocals. Anita Formilan has an incredibly impressive vocal range, effortlessly reaching the lower notes of Till the Morning Comes and the higher notes of We All Seem To Fall to Pieces Alone, a fun, brass-driven waltz which wouldn’t be out of place played by a group of buskers on Parisian streets at dusk.

This is surely a band to watch out for. Till the Morning Comes is an excellent introduction to this album, twangy guitars aplenty and an impressive vocal performance. Motel Rooms is pretty relentless from the get go, with only ten tracks to win you round, get you dancing and convince you to put on track one again as soon as you’re done. Dead Rat is another standout, more towards the garage-y side of the surf movement this band is so inspired for. The song is staccato in all the right places, with each line a stab in the right place, before the chorus comes in and smoothes over the kinks. We can hear the band playing with rhythms here, which is seriously fun. 

The final track, Lustful Lovers is a moment to pause at the end of an otherwise very busy record. Taken straight from a Tarantino soundtrack, this song has a dusty saloon bar quality to it. The guitar parts meld effortlessly with the vocal line and it’s a great send off for a brilliant album.

Beginning to end, Motel Rooms is a really solid album from MOTHER ISLAND – a band who deserve way more recognition than what they are currently getting. Their previous release, Wet Moon, is also worth a listen, and may even be better than this one, as it has a little more room for spontaneity and humanity. Motel Rooms holds up, though and hopefully, with this third album, they will get what praise is due.

Rating: 8/10

Motel Islands is set for release May 22nd via Go Down Records. 

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