Album: Mythical Motors – Join Her Circus

There is a certain breed of songwriters, the Robert Pollards, the Martin Newells, who are so prolific that it only makes sense that these individuals speak in catchy and melodic lyrics. They must dream in interesting chord progressions and snore in harmonic fashion. Give them a couple rubber bands, a paperclip, and some old chewing gum and they can probably make a short EP of songs within a week. Thus is the class of writers that Matt Addison of Mythical Motors belongs to.

The Chattanooga-based rock group has put out around 20 albums since 2006, and each year brings at least one, if not two, new Mythical Motors records with it. Their 2023 release is called Join Her Circus and is a familiar and welcome addition in the bands ever-growing catalogue of garage pop-rock accolades. Each song on the new record is a small power-packed piston comprising an engine that runs on fuzzy, buzzy Britpop. The album starts off with a bang with “Emerge From The Catacombs” and chugs, churns, and burns along, occasionally accented with slower acoustic tracks like “Siren Parade” and “Father Hypnotist” ending with the standout track “Street Light Halos”.

The songs are best enjoyed in the context of the whole album, all of the little pieces add up to show a collage of rock through the years. Nearly every decade is represented in some way; the short and snappy melodies of the 1960’s British Invasion, the jangly guitar sounds of the 1980’s underground scene, heavy use of the distorted tones associated with the 1990’s, and even some angular guitar leads from the 2000’s garage rock revival. Join Her Circus is out now courtesy of Lo-Fi City.

You can find more music on Bandcamp or Spotify.

Written by John Brouk