Bubbly Mommy Gun’s debut is a record for mid-morning, for sitting in the kitchen with sunlight streaming through the windows, hungover enough that the light looks weird but not so hungover that it hurts. Warm synths and guitars like reverbed rubber bands envelop near-whispered vocals on songs with titles like “Pillow Bread” and “Rat Fractals”—so odd that you want to keep them to yourself for fear of misrepresenting them to the friends with whom you share them.
The record is divided roughly in half, with Charlie Key singing on the first half, Greg O’Connell on the second, give or take. Their keyboard and guitar playing gives the album its atmosphere, either as support for the vocal melody or standing alone, as on the instrumental title track. The rhythm section of Joe Kubler and Mercer West supplies the structure—the dynamic backdrop against which the songs shine.
The band has created a lush, full album, its many turns inventive and unexpected, its surfeit of ideas reminiscent of The Unicorns’ Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? This is effortlessly nuanced pop music, immensely enjoyable in its own right, even as it presages better things to come.
Bubbly Mommy Gun is playing at Farm 255 on Saturday, Jan. 15.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
