More about: methyl ethel

Losing a friend is not something we can ever prepare for, and often we are unable to control our grief, let alone create art from it. Jake Webb’s fourth album as Methyl Ethel does exactly this. Tossing ruminations of mortality, losing time and candid fear into a steadily simmering mixtape.

Webb tackles the loss of his former musical collaborator Brian Mitra, returning to the studio Mitra founded, and the location Webb recorded his first EP Guts. With the studio acting as a touchstone that sandwiched the inception and current status of Webb’s career, he has the opportunity to reflect and pour his heart out into his grief-ridden fourth album Are You Haunted?.

Stepping away from the digestible synth-pop and introspection of Triage, Webb and his band look outwards for inspiration. Their gaze settles on philosophy, cultural shifts and millennial discomfort. We feel Webb sinking beneath the surface of the propulsive intensity of an outside force, distancing himself from his pop DNA.

Webb’s emotions are laid bare throughout the record, with ‘Matters’ seeing abject fear become burgeoning excitement, and opener ‘Ghosting’ appearing to be a eulogy to the lost. Are You Haunted? is evident catharsis for Webb, and it’s skeletal, foreboding feel gives us a muddy window into his headspace, and the process of grief. ‘One and Beat’ and ‘In a Minute, Sublime’ are delicate indulgences into Webb’s experimental songwriting.

‘Proof’ cites a post-truth era as its source material, and ‘Kids On Holiday’ taps into climate-anxiety with it’s MGMT bounce and sparse piano-driven melodies. The record packs in the orchestral oddities of A Moon Shaped Pool era Radiohead, whilst maintaining a pop vibrancy that swaddles each track in an inviting veneer. A polished yet offbeat record that adeptly navigates the gravity of grief and sparkles with unconventional production flourishes.

Are You Haunted? is out now.

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More about: methyl ethel