Mother Mother is a Canadian indie rock band whose recent rise in popularity has got the attention of many, including myself. Surprisingly, Mother Mother has been around since 2005, and had a very short 15 minutes of fame in 2016-2018 with their song “Body” on the O My Heart album. This album consists of 13 songs, but for simplicity sake, I will be reviewing “O My Heart,” “Burning Pile,” “Wisdom,” “Ghosting,” and, last but not least, “Hayloft.”

With “O My Heart” being the opener of the album, it kicks! The drums accompanied by the bass make a “beating heart” rhythm which I am in love with. The song talks about how the singer is trying to force compassion and how hopeless it seems to be. Lyrics like “it’s black in a rainbow” show how his heart doesn’t fit in his chest. There are also constant repeating lyrics such as “O my heart is a fish out of water,” which is the dead fish on the album cover, and “rock in the gutter,” both of which reference the heart that is clearly being told that it’s dead or cold. Later in the song, the singer tries to warm up this cold and dead heart, basically cooking a dead fish. He’s trying to make something better, but he isn’t patient so he metaphorically throws his heart in the fire. But this heart is still cold, no matter how much he does to feel he can’t.

“Burning Pile” is somewhat a prequel to “O My Heart,” with the singer giving up on trying to fix the problems that he’s made for himself and a sweet reminiscence of what was. He’s ready to start avoiding the problems and does everything he can to do so. This song is a lot slower, but not slow like “Ghosting.” This song is more of an irrational decision made because he gives up on trying, “all my troubles on a burning pile if you will. In the end, it seems like the singer is dancing in joy with flames in the background, then it dissolves into notes going deeper until it hits the lowest note, making a musical representation of a “low point.” This man took his situation and let life take it, because he can’t.

“Wisdom” is one of my favorite EP’s out of the entire album, so this part may be a little biased. Wisdom is about someone who is clueless on how to do everyday things and is trying to take the easy way out by asking questions he should’ve asked when people told him how to. This song has an upbeat guitar rhythm and the drums and bass both give a carefree beat like skipping or walking. He threw his problems out and now realized he could’ve got some help with help. He doesn’t know what to do with his life because all he ever did was take the easy way out and never listened to “good advice” those around him gave. At the end it gives this Mirror Masks type of rift, at least that is what it reminded me of.

“Ghosting” is another one of my favorites and was actually how I got into listening to Mother Mother’s music. This song is very different from the rest of the EP, with very eerie sounds and rhythms. This song feels like you are the ghost floating around, which is perfect. When he says “ghosting,” he doesn’t mean he’s ignoring the person mentioned, but actually, he is talking about living without purpose. The relationship between him and the person has been dead, it’s over, but he is still wandering the plains and reminiscing. He finally realizes he needs to move on, for her and himself.

“Hayloft” is by far the most popular Mother Mother song. A very upbeat punk rock song that screams Mother Mother starts with a sick guitar melody backed up by the drums and vocals. Hayloft seems to tell a story of two lovers being caught in the Hayloft and the father murders them. If this was a metaphor, I would say it’s a metaphor for jumping to action without thinking as it relates to the rest of the album’s themes. Instead of talking about the problem with the teens, the father kills both of them to “get rid of the problem.”

So what’s my rating for the songs I’ve reviewed?

O My Heart: 5/10
Burning Pile: 7/10
Wisdom: 8/10
Ghosting: 7/10
Hayloft: 6/10

Album as a whole, 7/10

Mother Mother is a band I highly recommend to anyone who has a flexible music taste, and as always, please remember this is how I view the album, so none of it is factual as this review is for entertainment purposes only.