Originally released decades (!) ago via the influential D.C.-area label Simple Machines, the second album from The Mommyheads stands in odd contrast next to nearly anything else from that era. Heard now in a new reissue, Coming Into Beauty is defiantly iconoclastic, and boldly quirky. The music here from Adam Elk and compatriots confounds as much as it charms, but one appaluds every risk taken, even the ones that didn't quite lead to success.
"Wedding Day" is very much like XTC, while "I Started Breathing" is more straightforward. There are elements of this that sound to our ears now like bands usually pegged as art rock, but it's also gently virtuosic, with an emphasis on melody over flashy playing. "Blind Like a Camera" and "Catbird" are subtle, even if they're wildy similar to Mummer-era XTC. I think Mommyheads got that a lot, as there's something in the vocals here that recalls, if not Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding certainly. And while Mommyheads are less interested in crunchy chords on Coming into Beauty than those Swindon guys were on their best records, there's a similar interest in how arrangements could blur the line between New Wave and art pop. Coming Into Beauty is a bit indulgent near the end, with some cuts like "Pigeon in Your Tongue" that really don't work for me still. That said, there are many successes here: "Sunfish Sunflower" is glorious and bright. Imagine if Todd Rundgren had asked The Pursuit of Happiness to cover "Love on a Farmboy's Wages" and you'll get an idea of what this is all about.
The Mommyheads were, of course, pursuing their own muses here, but they were doing it back when D.C. had harDCore still around, and a lot of C-86-inspired stuff happening on area labels like Slumberland Records. So, by just taking a few risks, including some big ones in stylistic terms, The Mommyheads earned, and continue to earn, a lot of praise from me. Coming into Beauty deserves a recommendation as a kind of lost gem from an interesting era when a band like this could slip through the cracks even while creating beautiful and complex power-pop that pushed against the stylistic conventions of the era.
Coming Into Beauty is out on Friday via Storefront Music.
More details via Mommyheads.com
[Photo: Uncredited promotional picture]