The Mantles have released their latest album, Long Enough to Leave on Slumberland Records. Their self-titled debut album was a high-energy collection of quirky garage rock songs that carried influences of classic punk. This time around, they’ve mellowed and streamlined their music into a more cohesive sound. While The Mantles have been able to expand their sound into heavier influences, they’ve managed to simultaneously make the overall appeal cleaner, and more precise.
“Hello,” is a bouncy mixture of garage rock and beach sound. The track’s main hook, “Maybe you could help me get out of here/ Maybe you could help me disappear” Rolls into the eardrums like its own tidal wave. In contrast, the album’s title track is pared down to a playful revival of folk/rock, complete with its own tambourine-shaking. The track is able to move the sound to its lighter side without losing any of its edge. “Brown Balloon” traipses through bubbly rock chords, almost dipping its toe into twee sound, but is kept grounded through Michael Olivares’ vocals. With his Ramones-like punk drone that varies in range to emphasize melodic highlights, Olivares keeps the echoes of former garage rock bands from diluting The Mantles’ freshness.
The Mantles have notes of Real Estate, with influences of the Kinks and Ramones thrown in. Creating music in a genre that has been revived numerous times can be daunting to a group that wants to present something uniquely their own. And although the album has a tendency to allow its own mellowness to evolve into passivity of sound, Long Enough to Leave still comes off as mostly original.
