With her long-running
Mega Bog moniker, songwriter
Erin Birgy has written her own musical language, molding whatever sounds and styles she touches around her otherworldly and always internally drawn vision of pop. Sixth
Mega Bog full-length
Life & Another continues
Birgy's boundless curiosity and exploration of both self and the universe writ large, again shifting on a whim from one colorful mode to the next within the framework of a cohesive larger statement. This begins with the light Tropicalia-adjacent groove of album-opener "Flower," where
Birgy crams overflowing lyrics into laid-back verses while tight, jazzy guitar leads harmonize. This sunny introduction to
Life & Another does an about face immediately into the dark synth pop of the next track "Station to Station." It's a shadowy foil to the bright moments depicted one track before, and the lyrics are heavy with heartache and betrayal. Much of the album jumps from one approach to the next with each new track, but
Birgy returns to certain modes as she goes, creating a cryptic sort of song cycle. The jumpy and upbeat "Weight of the Earth, On Paper" crackles energetically, and its theatrical tinges and animated approach show up again later on songs like "Before a Black Tea." Similarly, there's an almost ambient take on folk and rock idioms that comes through in waves with tracks like "Adorable" and the gorgeously drifting guitar-forward instrumental "Darmok."
Mega Bog albums have often touched on themes of death and existential pondering, but
Life & Another does so a bit more overtly. Album highlight "Maybe You Died" is a moody wash of uneasy sounds and sentiments that delivers its dark tonality with paradoxically friendly hooks and graceful vocal harmonies. The detail and complexity of
Life & Another are no surprise coming from the long line of thoughtfully constructed albums that
Birgy has made on the way to this one. It's a new and fantastic chapter in an ongoing body of uncontainable work, one where
Birgy has never hesitated to dive into her own psyche and wrestle what she finds there back up to the surface for all to see. ~ Fred Thomas