Triage

Methyl Ethel have reached great new heights with this stellar effort.

Abandoning the abstract art-rock ideals of experimentalism and pushing the rhythm section further out onto the dancefloor has resulted in a sweet spot for this type of storytelling. Still, this isn’t music to be taken in completely on the first listen. It’s eerie, complex, heart wrenching even.

A collection of unabashedly hooky '80s-informed rock songs. [Mar 2019, p.30]

An album that's part catchy song, part shimmering atmosphere, and part fractured rumination. It will be interesting to see what Webb comes up with for album four; in the meantime, Triage offers Methyl Ethel's most immersive collection to date.

Triage is full of fun, catchy melodies that waste no time grabbing your attention. Fans of 2010s indie pop bands like Foster the People will eat this by the spoonful. Webb is an Aussie pop prince and a keen producer, and this album, even if it occasionally slips into lyrical drab, sounds like the career-honoring record he needed to make.

At only nine tracks, Methyl Ethel has no time for filler, so they make a statement whenever they can. During the first listen, you may pick up on some of their faults, but multiple visits can expose you to all their hidden treasures.

Webb is capable of nimble vocals, but he often opts for a deliberately strained tone, as if trying to push his woes through his colon. His gift for hooks means that even this peculiarity will find fans.

‘Trip The Mains’, perhaps Webb’s finest composition yet, appears to share its electrifying opening riff with Donna Summer’s disco classic ‘Hot Stuff’, before diving headfirst into a seismic chorus that’d shatter Blondie’s ‘Heart Of Glass’. Elsewhere, the haunting ‘Scream Whole’ begins as a soothing lullaby, before unravelling itself into a doomy slice of noir-pop. This momentum is intermittent though, disappointingly.

Webb has an eclectic Thomas Dolby-style approach and he's not totally successful. ... But that doesn't matter because when he hits it, the song rises with glorious abandon. [Mar 2019, p.98]

Triage is worthwhile in its own right, but it falls just short.

A couple tracks break from the tired formula and show Methyl Ethel can actually create something unique and entertaining.