Milk White White Teeth - Ingrid Won’t Smile

Milk White White Teeth are best described as a collective, coming together to exchange ideas and push boundaries. Their new single, ‘Ingrid Won’t Smile’, is a summery song, lush and laden with plenty of brass instrumentation. Contrary to the uplifting strains of the instruments, the lyrics are pretty downcast with the singer mournfully wailing “Ingrid won’t smile” every chorus. The vocals are probably the least enjoyable part of this record; there’s little change in the monotonous tones. At times, it works - especially when the harmonies are introduced.

The melodies are well written and there’s something slightly nostalgic about it all, the brass interjecting and hitting its way through the song. The instrumentation is built upon perfectly, each part sounding meticulously considered. Unfortunately after a while, the song does lose whatever impact it first had; it all begins to sound extremely similar. This may be due to the relatively simple structure of the song, or that the vocals do little to help the variety of the song. However, it is clear that the band have great potential; the song sounds accomplished, polished and tight but doesn’t possess the spark to make it an engaging song for any definite length of time.