Artist: Tacocat
Album: This Mess Is a Place
Genre: Garage Rock, Indie Pop
Release Date: 2019
Audio Format:: FLAC (tracks) 24 bit, 96 kHz
Duration: 32:27
Total Tracks: 10
Total Size: 688 MB

Tracklist:

1. Tacocat – Hologram (03:46)
2. Tacocat – New World (02:55)
3. Tacocat – Grains of Salt (03:54)
4. Tacocat – The Joke of Life (03:19)
5. Tacocat – Little Friend (03:18)
6. Tacocat – Rose-Colored Sky (03:51)
7. Tacocat – The Problem (02:18)
8. Tacocat – Crystal Ball (03:33)
9. Tacocat – Meet Me at La Palma (02:38)
10. Tacocat – Miles and Miles (02:53)

Download:

When Seattle band Tacocat-vocalist Emily Nokes, bassist Bree McKenna, guitarist Eric Randall, and drummer Lelah Maupin-first started in 2007, the world they were responding to was vastly different from the current Seattle scene of diverse voices they’ve helped foster. It was a world of house shows, booking DIY tours on MySpace, and writing funny, deliriously catchy feminist pop-punk songs when feminism was the quickest way to alienate yourself from the then-en vogue garage-rock bros. Their lyrical honesty, humor, and hit-making sensibilities have built the band a fiercely devoted fanbase over the years, one that has followed them from basements to dive bars to sold-out shows at the Showbox. Every step along the way has been a seamless progression-from silly songs about Tonya Harding and psychic cats to calling out catcallers and poking fun at entitled weekend-warrior tech jerks on their last two records on Hardly Art, 2014’s NVM and 2016’s Lost Time. This Mess is a Place, Tacocat’s fourth full-length and first on Sub Pop, finds the band waking up the morning after the 2016 election and figuring out how to respond to a new reality where evil isn’t hiding under the surface at all-it’s front and center, with new tragedies and civil rights assaults filling up the scroll of the newsfeed every day. “What a time to be barely alive,” laments “Crystal Ball,” a gem that examines the more intimate side of responding emotionally to the news cycle. How do you keep fighting when all you want to do is stay in bed all day? “Stupid computer stupor/Oh my kingdom for some better ads,” Nokes sings, throwing in some classic Tacocat snark, “Truth spread so thin/It stops existing.” Despite current realities being depressing enough to make anyone want to crawl under the covers and sleep for a thousand years, Tacocat are doing what they’ve always done so well: mingling brightness, energy, and hope with political critique. This Mess is a Place is charged with a hopefulness that stands in stark contrast to music that celebrates apathy, despair, and numbness. Tacocat feels it all and cares, a lot, whether they’re singing odes to the magical connections we feel with our pets (“Little Friend”), imagining what a better earth might look like (“New World”), or trying to find humor in a wholly unfunny world (“The Joke of Life”). It’s a delightfully cathartic moment and the cornerstone of the record when they exclaim, in “Grains of Salt:” “Don’t forget to remember who the fuck you are!”Tacocat’s fourth album, and first for Sub Pop, This Mess Is a Place is the result of years of playing together as a band; refining their sound and stripping away everything but the biggest hooks, catchiest melodies, and brightest, shiniest surfaces. The quartet worked again with Lost Time’s producer Erik Blood, and for the first time tip their balance of punk and pop decidedly in the direction of the latter. It makes for an almost giddy listening experience as the band romps from one bouncy tune to the next. Slick synths are added here and there, the vocals harmonies shimmer like hot pavement, and the band sound tighter and more powerful than ever. They tap into their inner Go-Go’s and Josie Cotton quite often, as tracks like “The Joke of Life” and “The Problem” hit that same sweet spot of light and punchy that those artists did in their prime. While the music may encroach on giddiness, the often downcast lyrics create a contrast between sound and content that gives the record a much deeper impact than previous works. There aren’t too many jokes to tell when the world is falling apart around you, and the band do a fine job detailing the challenges of the era while making sure to offer some hope as well. The super poppy “Hologram” is an empowering singalong, “Grains of Salt” is a loping, danceable slice of advice pop, “New World” is an insistent power punk track with a hopeful vision, and “Rose Colored Sky” has the kind of expansive, wide-screen chorus that the band hasn’t delivered before but certainly nails here. The whole album feels like a big step forward, both musically and emotionally. Tacocat were a fun, sometimes great band before; This Mess Is a Place is their most consistent, most impressive, and best record yet and anyone looking for thoughtfully catchy modern guitar pop could do a whole lot worse. – Tim Sendra