I've been sitting on this review for a while. Not sure why. When Speed Trap dropped back in 2014 I must have listened to it close to a hundred times (not hyperbole). Who's MAMA? Straight up rock 'n roll from Chicago, IL, brother! MAMA performs blistering power-pop in the vein of Exploding Hearts, as if they were playing songs written by Rick Nielsen and attempting to catch up to Husker Du's Land Speed Record. Contrasting somewhat with the reckless punk pedigree of their fast and brash style, and releasing Speed Trap through local punk historians Hozac Records (who were definitely a big deal in Chicago at the time of this release), there is a real love of gaudy 70's flare (a la Kiss) and cheeseball 80's romanticism (smacks of The Knack) that seeps through to the surface on these songs. Luckily, the thick shellac of nostalgia only proves to enhance the appeal of these tracks, pairing crisp performances with an instantly recognizable sonic pallet in order to breathe life into the sounds of a prior era of debauched living. Rip the sleeves off your shirt, grab yourself an Old Style, and check out the Cheap Trick meets The Cars hard-pop pogo of "Three Tricks," the relentlessly hooky and paranoid, Phil Lynott possessed leads and epics rollicking builds of "Open Secret," the relentless, rolling drum work, shimmering guitars, and fiery gang vocals on "White Hen," and the pensive, Buzzcocks indebted "Bad Reputation." While Speed Trap felt like an effortlessly cool and timeless record when it dropped, but in retrospect, it definitely was stamped with the preoccupations and prevailing sounds of its time, and represents one of the better closing acts of the 2010's garage revival, a medium-range epoch of DIY that never felt like it would fade until it did. This kind of sound started to usher towards the exits right around the time that normcore started becoming the, well, norm. Now I'm not blaming high-waisted pants and turtleneck sweaters (ugly as they are) for diminishing the joy one could glean from dumb, sweaty, power chords performed by the masses of unwashed bar-backs and bicycle delivery dudes on their nights off, but there is some correlation with the drop off in interest in this style of rock and more dudes pulling up to shows looking like extras from Seinfeld, or that movie where Joaquin Phoenix becomes romantically involves with is iOS. I'm a noticer. It's what I do. I notice things. MAMA only released one more EP after Speed Trap that I am aware of, 2016's Eye In the Sky, which is more Beatles-esque and leans firmly into early R'nB territory. It's good; stronger songwriting with a firmer grasp of melody, but it lacks the blaring intensity of Speed Trap. And in all honesty, it's this garish need to be as loud, fast, and loutish as possible while maintaining a tune, that still causes Speed Trap to hold the first-place position in my heart.
More infectious audio from HoZac.
