Totally Unicorn: High Spirits // Low Life

- The cool dads with cool sons have served three years in the magical animal wilderness and now they’re returning a member lighter. So it would be understandable, or at least excusable, that operating sans a second six string chaos merchant would make Totally Unicorn more phlegmatic, right? Well…yes…but also…no. High Spirits//Low Life is most definitely the (now) four piece’s most focused out to date. It maintains the ingredients of a Totally Unicorn record but now whips them into something that channels what brought them to the dance and combines to be the best record by them to date.

With a slim and concise nine tracks on the record, Totally Unicorn aren’t here to fuck spiders. Intentions are made crystal clear with Yeah Coach. Gambolling guitars bolt from the gates with boundless energy and return for the chorus. That chorus blairs a dismissive refrain of “yeah, yeah, yeah”; bellowed out as a battle cry. It is begging to peak-out crowd engagement. Truest to form is Tip Your Tinfoil Hat. The guitar whiplashes from driving riffs to manic squelches and squeals. Drew Gardner’s vocals are on point throughout the record. He’s always had the claustrophobic and manic delivery of a man try to desperately convey his thoughts before they consume him. He could put these aggressive stylings to use by reading something as dull as dishwater like a Virginia Woolfe novel and I’d still find it enthralling.

Old Mate and Weekend Warrior are pretty legible by Totally Unicorn standards and that leans into their narrative weight. The first of these is a disgruntled piss take on a yobbo that everyone knows. The latter laments the pain of you and your mate’s always conflicting schedules and features some truly beefy boy instrumental work with massive melodic hooks and a great yell along part before devolving into a killer breakdown. Now that Totally Unicorn can weave these catchier elements into their usual firebrand assault, they’ve truly come into their own. Going one step further in their musical push forward is the album’s title track which clocks in at over seven minutes. Hidden in the middle is a disarming melancholy moment that still harbours that uneasiness present in their more frenetic ones. In a clever nod to the punk meme surrounding growing up, it was a great move to enlist Jay Whalley for Fri(ends). Here they grapple with the disintegration of friendships and that trusty chestnut of growing up. It’s possibly their most straight forward song to date: I mean, they’ve got vocal harmonies and a pissin’ guitar solo! Back to tumultuous times we go with the closing two tracks and when you tote up the score for the whole lot, it’s easily their best collection of songs thus far.

It’s been a journey with Totally Unicorn: from unexpected cameos of Border Security, using Gofundme for a box of goon, and the release of Horse Hugger. Here there’s the same raucous riffs, anxiety riddled vocals and a group effort to tell time signatures to job all. All the elements I’ve come to know and love from the Wollongong crew are present. With High Spirits//Low Life, Totally Unicorn have learned how to ride their wave of momentum and ride it just like Ol’ Winno, to great success.

- Matt Lynch.