DOWNLOAD: Mwahaha

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 10, 2011 7:00PM

I'm still digesting the self-titled debut from Mwahaha, but judging by the fact I've listened to it five or six times bodes well for my opinion of it. Admittedly after the first listen I was ready to delete it from my hard drive, thinking it was just another woozy, semi-psychedelic pop group -- a genre I truly enjoy but am noticing it's also becoming the default for an increasing number of musical groups -- but something stopped me from doing so. OK, full disclosure; I DID delete it, and then added it right back moments later due to the nagging feeling I was making a mistake by writing it off so quickly. This happens. One pitfall (oh man, here come the tears) of writing about music for OH SO VERY LONG is that you have SO MUCH to listen to!* But the upswing is that you're well aware of the pitfall so you develop an internal radar that keeps you from dismissing the good stuff too quickly. Sadly this doesn't stop you from adding not-so-good stuff to year-end lists prematurely but that's a whole 'nother story.

I have included two tracks from Mwahaha's album below. The first is "Love" and it features the young lady who fronts (well, basically is) critical darlings tUnE-YarDs, a band I personally find pretty boring on album but less so in person. "Love" is possibly the weakest track on Mwahaha but it is the one that will get the band attention since the guest vocalist is famous, at least to readers of Pitchfork.

The other track, "Rainbow Diamond," is much better. So listen to that to. It's both catchier and weirder. It also, now that I listen to it again, carries more than a whiff of the sound that endeared me to two precursors in the world of weird-ish pop, Super Furry Animals and Creeper Lagoon.

Anyway, it's Thursday afternoon and god knows we all need something good to power us through these last few hours before the weekend starts (and don't lie to me and pretend you don't start whooping it up on Thursday night because I know you do) so download these tracks and start building a mixtape to power your bacchanalian celebrations.

MP3: Mwahaha "Love"

MP3: Mwahaha "Rainbow Diamond"

Mwahaha's Mwahaha is out December 6. It's self-released so visit the band's Facebook page closer to that date for how to order it.

*Repeated head slapping and groaning at this point on your part is completely forgivable.