MICK MERCER REVIEWS "FOREVER FREE"

THE SPIRIT GIRLS
FOREVER FREE
End Is Here

Some people are so out there you’re genuinely glad you’re not with them, and this is the case with these surreal harpies. Creating a record which is fascinating rather than enjoyable they present something of an experience, which will have you gawping at the lyrics and staring at the confusing images of circus folk and bears and cows, of girls with a deathly pallor, making sure you have all exists covered. These people could be anywhere, and you wouldn’t know it.

At first all seems calm enough with ‘Anthem For Ophelia’ with twittery, swirly synth, a strong hazy vocals sound and drifting cello, especially as it slowly gathers form, shunts forward rhythmically somewhat severely, while the vocals really press forward, like a resentful ghost. Vinegary Ethereal with bluster you might say, and I wouldn’t contradict you. ‘Milk Maid appears, as simple a bleary wilting folk song about a cow as can be imagined, with other sounds slopped in to fill up the spaces. ‘The Hunted Little Green Grass Girl’ makes you realise they’re not quite on the same territory as kitsch melodic terrorists Flaming Fire, but utilising wobblier sub-dance squiggles, with brash, blaring guitar and genuinely weird vocals, big and slow. A quiet, almost graceful farmyard sing-along. Why?!!

‘Comforting The Bears’ is even stranger, with sweeping lines coursing through a serious synth moan, tough splodges of drums splattering morose detached indie and an oddly demanding vocal drone. ‘Small Town’ is instrumental, from buzzy atmospherics to a collision of crumpled drums and angry, determined guitar which is suddenly all there is there. ‘Airstream Dream’ could be an ethereal grunge experiment by Patti Smith, except that it questions why you’d question a pig bottled-fed by a clown. (“You think you’ve lost your mind It was gone all the time.”)

‘Haunted Horse’ clomps away dowdy and cloudy, ‘Graveyard Song’ sets idle, twanging high guitar to a fog of distorted vocals; a convincingly bare artistic drama, and then ‘Song For The Spirit Girl’ is almost a conventional delight of mottled, brooding pop with yammering vocals., vibrant grubby guitar, captivating strings and strident drums. ‘The Ship Gong’ disappoints as a farewell song, being a bit drab, but by then you’ve withstood it all and feel pretty damn virtuous.

So if you’re concerned for the whereabouts of women capable of setting up a nativity scene in a miniature replica of the Bates Motel don’t worry. They’re here.

http://www.marnieweber.com/spiritgirls.html - great pics!