Melbourne-based Jay Mothman’s new tune has a lo-fi warmth we’re not used to. It’s modern bedroom folk-rock, but not as you know it.
Described by the artist as “a song about a bad relationship”, it certainly feels nostalgic and introspective. There’s an overt earnestness here as well as a palpable undercurrent of regret and begrudging self-effacement.
Recorded by himself in his bedroom, Puppy has an almost-Bon Iver quality musically. The early material from Justin Vernon was, of course, famously recorded in isolation in a cabin in the woods – perhaps that isolation, both perceived/emotional/proverbial and literal/actual, is what these two troubadours have in common.
There’s also a Conor Oberst/Mystic Valley lilt to the vocals here that lends the song a tenderness but also a vulnerability that garners an automatic empathy for the author, despite lines like “you’re calling me a bastard, as if I don’t know who I am”.
Check out the video if you can – it was shot on an old Hi-8 tape camcorder, and it has some old found footage spliced in as well.
Written by Kinda Grizzly
