Plastic Mermaids - It's Not Comfortable to Grow (2022)

Since their 2019 album Suddenly Everyone Explodes and their Kraków gig this year, I love the Isle of Wight band and their improvisation-full, psychedelic style of music. After the gig, the artists mentioned that there's a new album coming and now it's official: It's Not Comfortable to Grow is a perfect continuation of this crazy discography.

There's no doubt that Plastic Mermaids love experimenting. With their style of being (think IDLES kind of weirdness) and their music. The latter involves the eclectic, pace-changing and colourful compositions with synthesizer heavy walls of sound that can as easy melt into minimalist electronic passages. There's so much going on this music and everything is simply flying on the back of catchy melodies (Girl Boy Girl, Disposable Love and many more on this album) and lyrics sung by the unique, a bit nervous but also very dream pop-like vocals by Douglas Richards. And it doesn't matter really if they make a faster and catchier tune or a ballad (like It's Pretty Bad), there's always multitude of things going on in the backgrounds and trying to decode it is a huge part of the fun.

But all of this chaotic music has a huge melancholic aftertaste all over (at least, Something Better gets way, way beyond that). The vocals and the music feel genuinely sad, as if a fun and outgoing person who tries to hide their emotional state, But on the album, the lyrics show everything; it is a "profound and emotional exploration of the many facets of heartbreak" as the band's Bandcamp account states. And it is built with very modern-feeling poetry that can be understood probably worldwide with references to environmentalism among others. 

It's Not Comfortable to Grow costs 9.5 EUR (8 GBP).

Check: Something Better

Country: UK

Genre: psychedelic pop

Label: Sunday Best Recordings

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