I Got Heaven, the latest album by Mannequin Pussy, sees the band continue to balance radio-friendly alt rock with visceral emotional honesty and in the process come away with some of their most rewarding material.

Title track ‘I Got Heaven’ combines gritty, barked verses with a shimmering, gliding chorus that in combination set a great precedent for the album to come. It demonstrates in one blow the sum of what the album’s songwriting encapsulates. The lyrics delve into the contradictions of everyday life and the emotions and urges they compel in us, with singer Marisa Dabice comparing herself to a “dog without a leash… growling at a stranger… biting at their knees.” These lyrics fit perfectly with the feral yells that make up the verses, Dabice coming across rabid and unhinged before ethereally soaring when the chorus hits.

The loud/quiet dynamic is a key feature on I Got Heaven, with the title track’s verse/chorus switch up being inverted on the following “Loud Bark”, with an anthemic repetitive hook and quiet, meandering verses. ‘Nothing Like’ is a gentle indie rock/pop cut that easily could’ve featured in a 2000s indie flick. Its warm rush of guitars and soft vocal delivery are enveloping, it’s unfortunate the song has been overshadowed by an ill-advised and controversial AI driven music video.

Even though the crackling guitar tone is near omni-present on I Got Heaven, it occasionally takes a distant back seat, like on ‘I Don’t Know You’, a subtle and withdrawn pop rock track that is (ironically considering its repetition of “but I wouldn’t tell you”) upfront with its emotional centre. The jangling guitars on ‘Sometimes’ and “Tell Me Softly” are another good example of the band playing with their lighter side, though the snarling tone inevitably comes streaming back in a cathartic flood.

The punkier side of the band isn’t absent on the record, though. ‘OK! OK! OK! OK!’ sees the band engage in a lean hardcore number, and despite its repetitive hook it’s one of my favourite cuts on the record. From the word go it is unrelenting and heralds a more ferocious approach on side B of I Got Heaven.

Weirdly though, ‘Tell Me Softly’ breaks up ‘OK! OK! OK! OK!’ from its more punk indebted siblings. If the two were swapped the track listing would make a lot more sense. The flow just feels a little disrupted to my ear. ‘Of Her’ and ‘Aching’ definitely fit more in line with ‘OK! OK! OK! OK!’ and you would still have ‘Split Me Open’ ending the record so side B wouldn’t be one note. Swapping tracks 6 and 7 would make sense to me. ‘Split Me Open’ manages to balance the loud and quiet as well as the opening run of tracks and so feels like an obvious closing track, rounding out a pretty solid grungey rock record.

I Got Heaven is a pretty solid collection of material. Mannequin Pussy’s songwriting is self-assured and never takes an egregious misstep. Whilst not perfect, not all these songs are deeply memorable, I Got Heaven sees the band deeply comfortable with who they are as songwriters.

Mannequin Pussy: I Got Heaven – Out 1st March 2024 (Epitaph Records)

Pussy – “Nothing Like” (youtube.com)