Mannequin Pussy’s I Got Heaven represents a number of notable firsts for the Philly band: It’s their first studio album in five years, their first with guitarist Maxine Steen, and the first they’ve written together as a unit in the studio. But I Got Heaven isn’t so much a reinvention as it is a reinvigoration—a doubling down on all of the things that make Mannequin Pussy one of the most electrifying rock bands working right now.
I Got Heaven feels at once spontaneous and meticulous, no doubt owing to the collaborative writing process and the steady hand of producer John Congleton. For the way they mix elements of hardcore, shoegaze, and power pop across their music, Mannequin Pussy have long defied strict categorization. And reflective of the band’s penchant for blurring genres, the new album remains fiercely focused on its singular theme of freedom.
Mannequin Pussy make their intentions known immediately on the opening title track. “I went and walked myself/Like a dog without a leash,” Marisa Dabice sings. At its core, “I Got Heaven” expresses a heartfelt desire to shelter a friend from religious torment: “I am spiteful like a god/Seek a vengeance like the rest/For what they did to you, I will never lay to rest.” The way Dabice sees it, you have to be your own god and create your own heaven.
On “Loud Bark,” Dabice expands the metaphor of the title track: “Not a single motherfucker who has tried to lock me up/Could get the collar round my neck/Or find one that’s big enough.” The song’s brash defiance is layered with a deep desire for autonomy, as is “Of Her,” a fiery ode to Dabice’s mother: “I was born/Of her fire/Of sacrifices/That were made/So I could make it.”
Echoing the metamorphosis of the music, which begins with a light shuffling drumbeat before transforming into a headbanger, the lyrics of “Nothing Like” find Dabice pondering the effects of blowing up your life to start over with someone new. With this in mind, a subsequent track, “Sometimes,” works as a direct response: “Why’d you go and take your life and try to fit it into mine?/I know that it’s not right for us to stay.”
On the searing “OK? OK! OK? OK!,” Dabice and bassist Colins “Bear” Regisford trade vocal duties, sifting through the ashes of a crumbling relationship in search of a way to “heal,” before commanding their partners to “heel” in order for the relationship to work. It’s a witty expansion of the album’s correlation of human behavior with the animalistic, and introduces a new tension: How much should we tame the wilder parts of ourselves for other people?
Mannequin Pussy offers an answer in their refusal to accept the status quo. Through a balance of firebrand punk and intoxicating power pop, I Got Heaven is a musical expression of self-governance and all the pain and pleasure that comes with it.
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