The Breakdown
It’s been four years since we reviewed Merpire‘s last official release, the album ‘Simulation Ride’, and the Naarm/Melbourne-based award-winning multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter (the nom-de-plume of Rhiannon Atkinson-Howatt) is back with her new album ‘MILK POOL’: a marvellous sonic journey that puts to the fore her immersive vocals and wry intelligent delivery.
Merpire shares of the album:
I recently overheard a quote by the Russian composer Rachmaninov on writing music. He said, ‘It should be the product of the sum total of a composer’s experiences’. It was comforting to find such correlating eternal values in music between myself – a female, queer, Australian contemporary artist living in the 21st century and a male, straight, composer who lived in the 19th-century. Like life, the only constant on this record is change. ‘MILK POOL’ is finding home and displacement. While I’ve written lyrics and created production elements to fit my emotional connection with the personal meaning of each song, the album is open to interpretation. Why put a song in a box when art is meant to be free? ‘MILK POOL’ has served my needs to express myself and my experiences. It is now literally “released” as an open gift for whoever wants to listen to explore their own meanings and emotions.”
Opening proceedings is the soaring lush sounds of ‘Leaving With You’, exhibiting a delicate yearning romanticism over the rich guitars:
I only stay in the hope of leaving with you
I run away with the thought of it coming true
living for the thrill
knowing you might want me still
I only stay in the hope of leaving with you
The guitars sound immense – reminding me a little of the force and tone of Smashing Pumpkins – and this is burnished by Merpire’s soothing sonic range that aches with passion and emotion.
Merpire says of the track:
‘Leaving With You’ is about those feelings you get around a crush when you have an inkling they feel the same way: the wonder if they’ll turn up to the party you’re at is both unnerving and exhilarating, you’re not sure if you’re hiding it well, nothing fills you with more energy than your crush being in your vicinity. You think about going home, you’re tired, but then they turn up and suddenly you could stay all night, living in this space where the probability between hooking up with them and not hooking up with them is equal.
It comes with a nineties-influenced video directed and shot by Brooke Painter starring fellow musician Ruby Gill:
In ‘Premonition’, Merpire’s yearning style and velvet soft vocals remains to the fore in this silky smooth track, filled with a languorous dreamy atmosphere ripe for release on Valentine’s Day. The song is built on an aquatic synth riff with a driving insistent beat and chiming guitars, expressing a charming romantic melancholy:
There’s a pull in my skin
To show you where you’ve not been
It’s all I think about
Merpire says of the track:
I was reading my first fantasy novel at the time, ‘The Name Of The Wind’ by Patrick Rothfuss. The lyrics and scene-building of this song were inspired by the main-character in the novel and the way they felt about another character. The honest detail is achingly relatable. It got me thinking about the most intense moments of a crush. The lyrics just flowed from there, but it was a hard song to produce – it sounded like two different songs for a while. We kept at it and eventually James magically and skillfully sewed elements together to sound the way I was visualising the scene – kind of stalky, woozy and dramatic.
It’s deliciously dark pop that radiates bliss. The track is accompanied by a self-directed video:
‘Bigger’ is another drop of dreamy pop gold in her sonic armoury. Bigger is an indeed appropriate title for a song that is luminescent and anthemic.
The guitars jangle with a crystalline edge and the track has a driving oscillation that explodes into a cinematic chorus and a soaring instrumental bridge.
There is a delicious romanticism in the delivery, highlighted by Merpire’s silky vocals and ear for infectious melodies. The lyrics capture with a sense of humour the anxiety of love in its early blushes:
With your fingers in my mouth
And when I stopped you going south
It couldn’t stop us from feeling like
This could be bigger than we thought
Merpire has the joyous pop sensibilities of artists like Sharon Van Etten and this is another shimmering example of her art. The track is accompanied by a luscious and passionate performance video directed, shot and edited by Merpire and Brooke Painter. Merpire’s enigmatic presence shines through:
There is a velvet softness to ‘Rosanna’: a restrained elegance with a dreamy fugue and pattering drums threading through the crystalline guitars: a more psychedelic Merpire but with the trademark yearning that intensifies like a burning fuse with its layered sounds. This is contrasted by the acousting jangle of ‘Cinnamon’: simple yet filled with emotion where the spaces inbetween says more. Merpire’s inherent beautiful romanticism shines through the yearning lyrics.
This restraint flows through into ‘fig. 8’ with its driving, throbbing beat and layered vocals and soaring anthemic chorus and ‘Canine’ with its vocal delicacy and expressive lyrics as Merpire sings of loneliness with an aching beauty and crunchy guitars.
According to Merpire, ‘Fishing’ is:
a song for every artist who makes huge sacrifices every day, while still being able to support other artists for the love of art” – and that through all the “learning and pushing and grieving, I was ever-proud of the resilience of the music community”
It was written at the end of 2020 after a huge year as a founder of globally successful live streaming series ISOL-AID through the pandemic, finishing her debut album Simulation Ride, starting another one-off project and releasing a collaboration EP.
It’s a thrilling euphoric pop song, anthemic and vibrant.
She says of the 90s-inspired video, directed by rcstills (Public Figures, Juice Webster) with additional shots by Brooke Painter (Heathers: The Musical, Urinetown):
It was essentially a big party of creatives, some of whom had met before and some who hadn’t, all coming together to express joy. By the end of the shoot we just wanted to actually live out what we were capturing – making new friends, chatting and laughing til the wee hours. It was truly beautiful and that love just beams out of the clip.
Guitars jangle and ring out in ‘Retriever’ under Merpoire’s reflective vocals backed by a heavenly chorus, seemingly a paean to a faithfull poch, and burnished by an air of nostalgia. ‘Internet’ is statuesque with its scaling piano as Merpire navigates the travails of social media and the web, with a haunting air and a wry smile referencing the vagaries of algorithms.
The album ends with the brief ‘You Are Loved’, a seemingly live outro with scraping visceral acoustic guitars where the echoing fingertips caress the strings, sending us drifting off into a blissful reverie.
‘MILK POOL’ is a glorious collection of jewels that sparkle: immersive and anthemic with a thread of melancholy and regret twisted into the very fabric. And yet throughout, Merpire’s lyrics have a detectable glint, an arched eyebrow a sense of humour as if she is bringing us into the joke – the wry observations of romance and relationships, of the mundanity of existence that is nevertheless extraordinary.
‘MILK POOL’ is out now. You can stream and download it here and order a special limited edition vinyl version here.
‘MILK POOL’ was recorded at Melrose Place on Wurundjeri Country with production by Merpire, James Seymour (Pillow Queens, Elizabeth M. Drummond, Jacob Diamond), and contributions via James Dring (Nilüfer Yanya, Genesis Owusu, Porches) and Elizabeth M. Drummond, mixed by Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding, Perfume Genius).
On duty are Merpire herself, (vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, synths, tambourine), James Seymour (backing vocals, piano, ukulele, electric guitars, bass, programmed drums, synths, percussion), James Dring (electric guitars, bass, drums, beats and percussion), Elizabeth M. Drummond (backing vocals, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, programmed drums, synths, bass), Jess Ellwood (drums) and Jeremy Gara (drums, percussion).
You can catch Merpire on tour in August – details below.
Feature Photograph: Rick Clifford
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