- In equal measures of dreamy vocal layers and biting guitar runs, sophomore EP Do You Know Enough from Canberra’s Moaning Lisa shines a light on the unease, disharmony, the freedom and ecstasy of growing up queer and female.
Opening the EP is Carrie (I Want A Girl) the first single lifted from the five track release. An earnest preface to the record, lyrically, it lands somewhere between Lou Bega’s Mambo number 5 and Cake’s Short Skirt, Long Jacket, except instead of rattling off a list of faceless, objectified women, Carrie… references influential queer women across popular culture.
From Courtney Barnett to Syd The Kid, I hear if you can name them all, Ellen Degeneres will appear (I wish).
Lily brushes on the edges of shoegaze, making sonic references to stalwarts Slowdive and indie rock darling Summer Flake. With cascading, anthemic vocals and ringing guitars, the slow burner depicts the steady demise of a relationship. The track’s consonance builds throughout, simmering and boiling over as it draws to a cacophonous, distortion driven conclusion.
Drenching their guitars in fuzz, Moaning Lisa’s closing track Sun does precisely what closers are built for - leaving a listener aching for more. The long building outro concludes in an explosion of frenetic instrumental energy - like an indie rock supernova.
In a climate where the trudge toward equality for our queer friends seems exasperatingly sluggish, we need voices like Charlie, Ellen, Hayley and Hayden who incorporate inclusive and necessary lyrical narratives just as deftly as they shred.
For a release about the growing pains of their early 20s, Moaning Lisa’s Do You Know Enough is profoundly self assured, measured and calculated. At times it’s tense, other times listeners might feel safely cocooned by distortion and haze. Yet while peppered by contrast, the sonic amalgamation of stomping punk composition and swirling dream pop elements results in a body of work so confidently theirs.
- Fiona Priddey.