Album Review – The Barren Marys – S/T
The Barren Marys have popped up on our radar a few times, playing shows in town and though these guys are South Jersey natives they absolutely fit right in with our vibrant punk scene. This album had me right at the beginning with a Ghostbusters sample. Immediately after the pop culture reference, it’s nothing but searingly fast punk rock that is full of hooks, awesome musicianship and attention to detail that make this album rule so hard! Even though everything is tight as fuck, it doesn’t mean that the album loses it’s edge or becomes less punk, to me, it just shows that these guys can play and they used their ability to straight kill their self titled album. Gang vocals, sick riffs, bass lines that move away from the main rhythm, drumming that has a ton of energy and awesome samples from movies / TV are all amazing elements you’ll hear on this record.
Some of the standout tracks on the album are “I Wanna Be A Hero” which starts the record out in the best way possible with gang vocals, an awesome guitar lead and an amazing amount of punk energy that is completely crushing! The lightning fast “49th and Asbury” is one of the quickest paced songs on the entire album and is front to back all killer and no filler. The Oi! punk, piano based party anthem “Tough Love” is definitely a song that will get stuck in your head as the hooks are incredible. “Staying up late making too much noise / Staying up late with the girls and boys / Then she rolled up a jay and she started to toke / She blew you a kiss in a cloud of smoke” are the awesomely fun lyrics on this track and the bass lines on this track is one of my favorites on the entire album. The next song “Exercise Your Feet” is undeniably catchy with NANANA’s and 1000x repeating chorus that in no way gets annoying, instead it gets you further stoked on the song! Finally, the last song that is totally killer is “Barren Marys Hymn” that again, is totally catchy and has some sick organ on the track. The chorus is another that will get stuck in your head for days! As for the rest of the album, you’ll more than likely be humming to yourself as you’re walking around after listening to it. All in all, this album totally fucking rules!
To get started definitely listen to the songs I’ve mentioned above, but the whole album is totally at the caliber of these tracks! These guys did an amazing job writing and recording this record! I can only imagine what one of their sets would be like if like there were half a dozen people there that knew the lyrics… actually, scratch that, because their lyrics are so catchy and repeated enough that if you were into them you’d be able to pick it up immediately! Their next show is May 15th at the Kung Fu Necktie with Loafass, WWIX, and Early and Justin! I definitely recommend you get out to that gig! So get out to that show, listen to the album below and get way into The Barren Mary’s! Also, download it for free or make a donation to the band in return for providing you with 10 killer tracks!
