GOON - Heaven Is Humming
GOON’s debut, Heaven Is Humming is a rock 'n' roll rollercoaster. Alt-rock flows through their veins, with a certain respect to darker folk music, in particular its tenderness and threat.
The first track feels like some what of a let-down. The discordant, gritty overdriven guitar is exciting, but it slips into a mushiness, that loses a lot of the energy. The following tracks redeem this, but throughout, especially towards the end there’s a repeated loss of energy which feels disappointing.
Retaining the zaniness of grungy predecessors in most of the tracks, Black Finch has the certain playfulness of guitars that bands like Pavement and the Pixies pioneered. While Northern Saturn has a softness, and warmth in the crunchy guitars. A synth whirrs and spins around the mix. The chorus has fun in spades, with a swaying airy vocal accompanying the slightly cheesy guitar. It’s a 2019 spin on 90s American rock and at times it’s fun, psychedelic, and has the surefire traits of a good live show.
Deny is exciting, fuzzy guitars and an addictive vocal hook make it one of the best tracks on the album. An obvious standout. It’s fun, exciting and has energy. It opens with a discordant mess of guitars and drums before crashing into a bitingly aggressive riff. It has speed and turns the energy up with 60s vocal melodies and a not so obvious surfy drum beat.
The quiet after the storm with Snoqualimie is perfectly pleasant. The strings swell and recede in counter to the vocals, threatening a crescendo at every moment. The vocals croon ever so slightly below the mix, it’s quite a wonderful, mellow, song.
Weird at times, strongly reminiscent of the Pixies, but perhaps kinder and sweeter. They occasionally spiral into a more psychy, stoner-rock trance – slowing way down, adding chorus’d guitar, a synth and people talking over the mix
The progressions make the developments that ordinarily would’ve been boring, rather interesting. The vocals interact in interesting ways too, but there is a distinct mushiness which doesn’t push the boat out quite far enough. Enjoyable when cranked up loud, but doesn’t feel all too leftfield or risky. It’s safe, and not too dangerous or threatening.
6/10
