On Mysterious Visions, NANCY effortlessly merges crooning vocals, searing guitars, ethereal atmospherics all with a dreamy, wonky worldview.
Being a hype band must be the worst. Everything you do it under a ridiculous amount of scrutiny and the second you actually release something its either praised for being visionary or derided for being a let-down. This where NANCY find themselves. Their Mysterious Visions is getting adulation all over the shop. So far the singles have been fun, but does the EP hold together? The answer is a resounding yes.
Opening with an eerie, yet euphoric, intro Mysterious Visions opens with a cover of Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Boots’. This is a subtle, make that blatant, wink at their name and a glorious cover to boot. ‘Boots’ is one of those songs that has been covered to death, however, this version taps into the playfulness of the original and also adds a dollop of avant-pop. The last time 'Boots' sounded this fun and exciting was when Megadeth covered it in 1985.
‘French Cinnamon’ channels classic crooners, but with a wonky backing track that slowly subverts the genre, and your mood, into something far more eerie and devastating. ‘Teenage Fantasy’ follows suit, but the beats are harder hitting and the vocal delivery oozes with pain and pathos. The standout track is the final one ‘I’m Not Getting Sober, I’m Just Getting Older (Helluva Guy)’. This is the rawest track on the EP. This is an ode about the pains of getting older and how the recovery takes longer. It's punk rock and rough-around-the-edges charm belie something deeper and more visceral.
The only downside to Mysterious Visions is that there are only two new songs, three if you include the 30-second introduction. While this doesn’t really matter, if you’ve been playing the two singles to death, you might be a bit disappointed at the lack of new material. However what you do get is six songs that are glorious in their scope and musicality. NANCY effortlessly merges crooning vocals, searing guitars, ethereal atmospherics all with a dreamy, wonky worldview. This is an EP to get lost in again and again.
As NANCY says - "Try to take time" - as the more time you spend, it's likely you'll unveil something previously missed or a new meaning for something you believed was concrete.
