<p><span><span>- Warrang/Sydney based post-punk darlings Mere Women offer us a many layered love letter with <em>Romantic Notions</em>, their soon to be released, highly anticipated fifth album, out via Poison City Records. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Led by frontwoman <strong>Anna Wilsons</strong>’ powerfully delivered prose, the album is a haunting, honest portrayal of love, longing & loss set to some of the finest deathrock inspired rhythms and riffs to come out of the fertile Gothic Australiana landscape in recent years. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Written and rehearsed in the riverside cottage that members of the band call home and recorded on the cusp of lockdown, there is a palpable and portentous sense of foreboding present in the album. With the threat of lockdown looming, the sense of uncertainty and urgency is felt throughout. And while darkness abounds, moments of shimmerling lightness pour a self-reflective and hopeful glaze over the album's pensive mood. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Capturing themes of overwhelming love and control, <em>Romantic Notions</em> speaks freely and passionately on the often-uncomfortable truths of women’s lived experiences - a recurring and revered subject throughout Mere Women’s catalogue. As you wander through tracks that seem to echo beyond the bounds of the songs themselves, you uncover more layers and meaning within the lovelorn odes which are so expensive, it's as if they were recorded en plein air, under wide night skies, capturing the band’s confessions straight to wax. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span><em>Romantic Notions</em> invites the listener to experience the sensation of being so completely consumed by love, desire and frustration whilst remaining painfully aware of your power and agency, or lack thereof, within the drama. Opening tracks <em>Romantic Notions, Heights</em> & <em>W.Y.G</em> promptly deliver the goods to fans who have eagerly awaited a follow up to the bands brilliant 2017 release <em>Big Skies</em>. Then, with the speed of an impulsive heart jumping to its next fantasy or delusion, the album changes pace and personality on track four, when an enchantingly unexpected marimba cuts through the guitar-laden haze of the previous tracks, straight to your nerves. With delight, you are pulled back to 1983 when <strong>Siouxsie Sioux</strong> and <strong>Budgie</strong> became <strong>The Creatures</strong> and the union of Siouxsie's otherworldly voice and Budgie's expert battery of percussion fused in subversive, sensual, instrumental exotica. Track six, <em>As You Please</em> so brilliantly paints a scene of sacred fireside rituals as Wilson muses: “<em>Will my body take this? / Rip me open, all my devotion / Take what you want as you please / Is this the best or the worst day of my life?</em>”</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><em>Romantic Notions</em> deftly weaves folk, post-punk, personal politics and poetry around hypnotic drum beats, howling guitars, heavy bass lines and haunting synth melodies. The result is an album which joins the informed & incredibly exciting contemporary Australian post-punk discography, alongside the work of their peers <strong>WIVES</strong>, <strong>Nylex</strong>, <strong>No Sister,</strong> <strong>Eternal Dust</strong>, <strong>Mod Con</strong> and the late, great <strong>Infinite Void</strong> & <strong>Rule Of Thirds</strong>. Romantic Notions flirts heavily with the sounds of <strong>The Glove</strong>, <strong>Malaria!</strong> & <strong>This Mortal Coil</strong>, making it a must have for the legion of underground Australiana and fans of classic, darke post-punk alike. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The album is overwhelming, yet liberating. Confessional yet commandingly confident. Epic and ethereal; disorientating dichotomies dance throughout the eleven eclectic tracks with expertly controlled chaos leaving us doubtless that Romantic Notions is Mere Women at their finest, delivering an album which encourages feelings & thoughts run wild. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>-Dominique Furphy. </span></span></p>
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