The crackling, gentle beat that opens debut, ‘Plain Jane’, introduces its central thesis: what the is up with everyone?
Clichés exist for a reason: life in your late twenties can feel like an all-or-nothing proposition. It’s an age of looking backwards while trying to figure out who you’re supposed to become, caught between who you are and the version of yourself everyone else seems to prefer.
‘Plain Jane’ is the result of six years exploring sounds and ideas while drawing on their suburban upbringing; the Nashville-based trio – co-lead vocalists and , and multi-instrumentalist/producer – spend some of the album’s finest moments filtering the anxieties of their twenties through a fascination with the lives unfolding around them.
On ‘Little Blue House’, that curiosity turns towards what goes on behind the doors of seemingly worldly neighbours. Elsewhere, the achingly beautiful ‘Suburbia’ aims at the American dream, casting a once-creatively free lover’s retreat into suits, ties and suburban respectability as a cautionary tale of hollow compromises. The repeated phrase, “I tried to warn you”, carries both a cutting sense of vindication and the bitterness of someone who watched that potential go to waste. There’s a disdain for mediocrity here, but also a frustration with the expectations that make conformity so appealing in the first place.
‘Plain Jane’ fits together like a puzzle, with some pieces doing more heavy lifting than others. ‘Heart Shaped Bed’ is a rollicking guitar-driven cut with an anthemic chorus, while ‘Fantasyland’ offers further proof of their pop chops, but their surrounding numbers, with small details and tangible feelings, reveal a greater depth.
The melodies throughout are indulgent and especially irresistible – one helping is never enough. Disco-tinged pop worms its way into the rhythms, particularly on the lamenting ‘Rosie’s Party’. Glowing synths pepper the tracklist, while swelling strings lend standout track ‘Average Joe’ an emotional crescendo. These are carefully realised arrangements, rich pop songs with ambition and feeling, with Forbes and Hall’s harmonies locking together with ludicrous precision.
Sure, ‘Average Joe’ almost begs for more bite in the bridge as the pair sing of screaming “fuck you” in cars. Yet, it’s the refusal to rise to the bait that gives the track its deepest cut: they’re less interested in winning the argument than in refusing to play by anyone’s rules.
Halfway through, the attitude shifts. ‘MAD!’ (“I’m a grown up now what does my inner teen need?”) and ‘OOPS!’ arrive in quick succession, the pace hustling as the album teeters between accepting getting older and holding on to your younger self. Moody Joody wear the former better, perhaps, but the latter’s energy is just as necessary. ‘OOPS!’ brings the same whatcha-gonna-do shrug as Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Bad Idea, Right?’, reminding us that the messes we make often bring us greater clarity.
Truly, if one thing should be taken away from ‘Plain Jane’, it’s that Moody Joody are adept at crafting pop hooks that emotionally eviscerate without prejudice. Paired with their Laurel Canyon thrift store aesthetic – all 60s leather and fur coats – the trio exude a confidence that reaches beyond the sleepy and conformist idylls they’re so adept at dissecting.
That maturity comes into focus on the closer ‘Sweet Surrender’. Its pop-swing lilt finds Moody Joody ultimately shrugging their shoulders and conceding that “Nothing really matters at all”. If ‘Plain Jane’ begins with the frustration of being misunderstood, this acceptance is the clarity the twenty-something journey should end with – so screw everybody else.
8/10