_{By Michael Luce}

I’ve had the interesting music journey over the past year or so of realizing just how much of my music taste is defined by Utah. Like, of course joining the magazine team full-time meant I’d be listening to more local music than before, but the deeper I dig, the more I realize songs I already loved were written by Utah artists. (I’m not even from Utah; I’m a transplant from Ohio for Pete’s sake.)

Such was the case with “Cover My Eyes” by MMEND. I have no idea where I found the song, though I’ve had it in the rotation for almost five years now. It’s great, but I had no idea it had any connection to Utah until June-ish of this year. Naturally, that discovery led me down the rabbit hole of checking out the rest of their stuff, and holy cow did I find a gem so well hidden, it has fewer than 100 monthly listeners.

Ladies, gentlefolk, and others of the jury, I present to you Spectator. The closest thing I can draw comparison to is Gotye’s 2006 album Like Drawing Blood. (No, that’s not the one with “Somebody I Used to Know.” That came later on 2011’s Making Mirrors.) Rather than pop Gotye, this is comparable to moody, introspective ethereal Gotye complete with odd solos, brilliant falsetto, and unexpected ‘instruments’ tucked almost randomly in the mix. I should clarify before I go much further that this comparison is one of the highest forms of praise I can give, as Like Drawing Blood is a top-ten album of all time to me and has been for over a decade now. I’ve spent years searching for something else that gives me even the slightest hint of that sound, and to say I’ve finally found it leaves me equal parts pleasantly disturbed and ecstatically shocked.

The album is largely genre-agnostic, choosing instead to blend indie, ambient, electronica, and melancholic vibe music into a smorgasbord of sound that, while all very different, makes sense together. It’s not cohesion through sound, it’s cohesion through detail and energy.

“Nothing That Doesn’t Happen Daily” carries this busy, shuffling beat, alongside pounding pianos and defiant horns (which, I can’t tell if they’re real or not and to tell you the truth, I don’t care)—all culminating in an absolutely satisfying emotional climax. The vocals here also draw comparison to Gotye, as they have that same breathy, reedy quality. I love it. I lovelovelove it. And I know I already mentioned it, but I can’t let you forget about that lovely falsetto.

The similarities between MMEND and Gotye are most apparent on the tracks “Too Close for Comfort” (which sounds and feels like a Gotye B-side) and “Don’t Think.” The end of “Don’t Think” in particular includes this lovely piano and string interlude over some environmental foley. It reeks of sadness and loss, but the kind that’s just a dull, gnawing force in the back of your head as you go on living your live. It’s beautiful; it’s pain; it’s perfect.

“Slow Down” is the perfect closer, as the track’s first half floats around in relatively unengaged voice lines and synth bloops before the halfway point suddenly lunges into this forceful guitar- and synth-driven grind that wrests the attention of anyone who was just content to nod off as the album came to a close. The vocal harmonies, now front and center, command the marching beat forward like captains of an unending sea of soldiers, sending wave after wave of sound against fortified walls until they concede and erode away. The beat then also softens, and the light piano from earlier in the album returns, giving a wistful melancholy to the end of the listening experience.

The music here is incredible and deserves a lot more attention than it’s currently getting. Besides Gotye, I could also draw comparisons to !!!, Radiohead, and a more pop-focused Better Corners. It was cool to talk with Mason (one of the Ms in MMEND) afterward about my listening experience, and to have him show off the variety of sonic influences that went into Spectator, none of which (interestingly enough) included Gotye.

My only criticism with Spectator is that I think the album, like many debut albums, feels like it’s not quite in the right order. If you just shuffled a few of the tracks a bit, this would be a stand-out knock-out near-perfect release. As is, it’s impressive as the first full-length album from a group and deserves way more attention.

If the members of MMEND happen to be reading this, I am so sorry to have spent so much of this review reducing your work to a comparison, but I promise this is all out of well-intentioned, innocent joy; I’ve just never found anything this freaking good that even remotely sounds like the thing I’ve loved for so long, and I’m really really really excited about it.

To everyone else, hopefully I’ve convinced you to listen to either Spectator or Like Drawing Blood, possibly even both. But if you haven’t heard either, you really ought to pick one to start with. Then, if you liked it, listen to the other. The best part with both these albums is if you don’t like one song, odds are none of the others will sound the same (remember: cohesion through energy, not sound).

(Also, for the record, I had already written this whole review before I realized there was already a review for Spectator in our archives. Whatever. It’s good enough it deserves two.)

Be sure to go follow MMEND on Instagram. According to Mason, the group has a bunch of unreleased stuff, so you’ll want to stay in the loop when/if it drops. Check out “Don’t Think” below!