MCNALLY WATERS

In “Bang Bang” - the title cut of their new EP - McNally Waters aren’t necessarily giving us a straight-up protest song, but they’re undisputedly offering a single equally steeped in political and personal investments that can’t be ignored in 2020. An amalgamation of Americana, blues and a faint jazz influence that seems to haunt the arrangement of the beats more than anything else, “Bang Bang” is quite the experimental cocktail and a potentially style-defining track for this project. 

McNally Waters have been winning some accolades in the underground in the last two years, and if you want to know why, this is an excellent example of their skillset in action. 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcnallywatersband/ 

Listeners get a really full-bodied swing out of the rhythm in this song, but much like every other component of “Bang Bang,” the percussion that the beat starts with is incredibly understated. Minimalistic melodies collide into each other gently in the background whilst our singer unfurls a smoky, almost ironically rustic vocal and verse up front, the two streams of aural texture running simultaneously but never spilling into one another. 

Everything in the mix is separate, contributing to a collage of narratives that - if taken at face value - capture the raw angst of the millennial generation in a way that hasn’t been attempted by McNally Waters’ contemporaries thus far. A surprisingly keen political statement that could be interpreted as being as much an identity work as it is a commentarial piece, the single/video combo “Bang Bang” and the EP with which it shares a title are great listens for fans of eclectic folk music everywhere this autumn. 

There’s a lot of chaos dominating the nightly news at the moment, and rather than trying to narrate opinions over a pseudo-poetic slideshow of headlines, McNally Waters are piecing together a very intimate expression of unrest that is unlike any other I’ve reviewed in the past year. 

Fore the record this is the only time I've ever given out a 10 Star Rating. Well done to MW! 

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Trace Whittaker

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

10/2020