Album review: Marmozets – Co.War.Dice

Marmozets’ inadvertent seven-year departure from the spotlight was, by its very nature, a low-key affair. Touring had begun to take too much of a toll on youngsters who’d started out in their mid-teens. Singer Becca Macintyre and guitarist/now-husband Jack Bottomley fell pregnant unexpectedly. Relationships waxed and waned. Almost two years since they announced a new record deal and that the gears were grinding back into life, however, their outstanding third album will not be overlooked.

Co.War.Dice is bursting at the seams with brilliance. That frankly bonkers album-title is a pretty good signifier. Becca enthused to K! a couple of months ago how it encapsulates all kinds of themes, from personal timidity and the need to seize your moment to televisual images of a world at war and the sense that conflict begins on the roll of a dice. Likewise, the songs within cascade with scattershot unpredictability, united only really by a sense of expanded maturity and sheer excellence. From the pulsating opener Kiss From A Mother to seven-and-a-half-minute closer Keep Going Darling, it feels like a ‘Best Of’ their time away.

Picking stand-out moments from these 11 wall-to-wall bangers really is redundant. All the same, the strident nostalgia of New York and the trippy swagger of Running With The Sun In Your Eyes stick out long after their single releases, while Swear I’m Alive and Flowers show a sensitive side to Becca that’s been in the back-seat since Marmz’s return. Her old fragility has replaced by a shimmering steeliness these days. Mes Desirs plays at points with the arena-ready theatre of Florence & The Machine. And acoustic centrepiece Dandy Man feels like a fascinating capture of the calm after storms that went on behind closed doors during hiatus.

Ultimately, though, rather than any kind of post-mortem on those years off, Co.War.Dice is a celebration of cranking the volume again, a roof-raising party where everyone is invited.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Don Broco, Amyl & The Sniffers, Die Spitz

Co.War.Dice is out now via Nettwerk