Methyl Ethel - Oh Inhuman Spectacle (2015)

Western Australia has given the Australian music scene its fair share of progressive, indie pop, folk and psychedelic genres; San Cisco, Eskimo Joe, Empire of the Sun,Tame Impala and John Butler to name a few.

Now another band has surfed in with their debut album Oh Inhuman Spectacle, that sends a breath of fresh musical air from our west coast kin. Methyl Ethel have given us Oh Inhuman Spectacle with much promise after their successful singles ‘Rogues’ and ‘Twilight Driving’, and they’ve done a mighty fine job.

Methyl Ethel’s debut album comprises of 12 sweet and dreamy tracks. They are all consistent and hit well above the mark track after track; a feat that not too many other albums manage to succeed in. 'From ‘Idee Fixe’, a seemingly beckoning song that does indeed draw you into Methyl Ethel’s world of its lucid beach-y daydream, to the accurately name ‘Everything Is As It Should Be’ which embodies a farewell that you don’t want to lead to reality but it has to.

An added dimension to this album is the ability of Jake Webb; lead singer, song writer and guitarist. He has been able to generate an almost androgynous interpretation of his vocals. Something I can only liken to Alabama Shakes vocalist Brittany Howard. She has this hearty tone in her voice that honestly confused me the first time I heard ‘Hold On’. Her voice is more masculine, while Webb’s is more feminine. Perhaps it’s the delicate way he carries his tones across, or maybe it’s just the way his voice has always been. Yet it’s incredibly more noticeable in songs like ‘Twilight Driving’, ‘Shadowboxing’ and ‘Idee Fixe’ and this confused interpretation only adds to the lucidity the album embodies.

Oh Inhuman Spectacle is filled with catchy guitar riffs and lyrics. ‘Obscura’, ‘Rogues’ and ‘Also Gesellschaft' are particularly memorable with their mixture of silky lyrics and melodies; “He said/I don’t want to be a photograph, another photograph in your album/I wanna be, a photograph in you door way if that’s okay” - lyrics from ‘Rogue’.

On the flip side you notice that there are many sultry tunes that lace the album like ‘To Swim’, ‘Depth Perception’ and ‘Sweet Waste’. Surprisingly though, these don’t bring the mood down after the more upbeat tracks, but keep you at a constant level of content when in between.

The entire album is extremely ambient. It possesses a feel that can only really be described as something you’d hear in a lucid sub-conscious state. It’s dreamy, it’s beach-y, it’s something that you’d find soundtracking your dreams. Even the interludes between ‘Depth Perception’ and ‘Unbalancing Acts’ are layered with sounds of crickets and insects; oh those summer nights. They have embodied so much with sound and vocals that when trying to liken them to someone else to provide context, its just a bombardment of genres, singers and decades.

Methyl Ethel has made something that has a subtle impact, but embeds deeper with each listen after that. The only issue is that it seems the experience is over too soon when it has actually been 44 minutes. Time melts away like the summer days, and it’s something Methyl Ethel brings to our attention with this album.