Marmozets - CO.WAR.DICE

A lot has changed in the eight years since West Yorkshire rockers Marmozets went on hiatus, in 2018 cruelly vanishing from the scene just shortly after the critical acclaim of their second studio album, ‘Knowing What You Know Now’. Frontwoman Becca Bottomley became a mother and married bandmate Jack, all faced a global pandemic (remember that one?), and the world took a dramatic shift towards the right. For Becca, it birthed a generation of cowards - herself apparently included - ultimately spawning ‘CO.WAR.DICE’, a ferocious return to the forefront and the end of a self-confessed life in the shadows.

Largely picking up from where the now-four piece left off, this third record is driven by Becca’s snarling vocals and a frantic math-rock pace, not least the assertive trio of opening singles. The stunning ‘Flowers’ joins the band’s repertoire of soaring ballad-adjacent rock masterpieces (namely 2014’s ‘Captivate You’ and 2018’s ‘Run With The Rhythm’). But personal change and global turbulence hasn’t just affected the band’s lyrics; ‘Dandy’, although written almost a decade prior, presents them at their most stripped back, ‘Swear I’m Alive’ delivers an understated gothic style, and ‘CO.WAR.DICE’ culminates in a stadium-sized indie-rock opus – a contradictory companion to the dense claustrophobia of ‘New York’ or ‘Cut Back’. Back from the dark, Marmozets have emerged fighting, offering the antithesis of the album’s title and a momentous middle finger to complacency.