The Mary Onettes are back. Back! BACK!

Yes, the Swedish foursome have come in from the cold and popped a new single on the turntable. Their eponymous album The Mary Onettes is nearly TWO YEARS old! I adored it as an autumnal soundtrack, with Void (see below) turning up as one of my top twenty songs of 2007. Other tracks like Lost had me hooked on their noughties version of Echo & the Bunnymen/New Order. It's still up on their MySpace alongside the new EP title song Dare with new tracks God Knows I Had Plans and Explosions.

The Mary Onettes are GREAT songwriters. They have melody and concise, no-fucking-about arrangements. They have killer riffs and can write proper choruses. In some quarters, this might be TOO clever to be indie, but this is northern Europe where pop = art. Think of them as a Beach Boys in the snow and you'll get half the idea. The rest is a dash of bands like The Smiths, The Cure, Joy Division, Hurrah!, Icicle Works, Jesus and Mary Chain and a huge slice of their own unique grandeur.

In the summer of last year, Philip Ekström , the Mary Onettes' singer had EVERY track they'd recorded stolen from the back of his car (what IS it with Swedish thieves stealing from bands? First The Millioners and now this lot). Unfortunately, back-ups were then lost forever on a suicidal hard drive. But despite the crushing loss, they regrouped and re-recorded the new album, of which, the Dare EP is the first taste, out on April 29th.

Here is their newest song below. Dare is a child of the 80s, a grandiose thing apparently recorded in a church. The opening guitar chords remind me of The Pretenders' Back on the Chain Gang...

This a live version of a track called Henry from their debut album.


The Mary Onettes~Henry from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

And here is my favourite...
The Void - The Mary Onettes (zShare)

The Mary Onettes MySpace