Take Enough Leeway by Mule Jenny

For fans of Fugazi, Tool, The Mars Volta, 80s college rock, and that nagging trace of unease in between anxiety attacks, Take Enough Leeway by Mule Jenny crafts a refreshingly accessible, instantly relistenable indie rock record paradoxically full of dissonant, angular sounds. Spindly, spiky guitar riffs and bouncy bass lines form a slowly-shifting foundation, an unstable core which keeps us from settling in comfortably to this unnerving sonic environment. Counteracting this instability, a vocal style pulled straight from vintage college radio reassures of this record’s fundamentally welcoming nature, drawing us into this world otherwise rife with anxious edge. Only a few minutes in, we find ourselves erratically dancing to the record’s impressive mathy grooves, allowing us to feel right at home in a world teetering on the edge of exposing all of our darkest fears. We may not be able to control our underlying disposition towards suspicion and fear, but by finding comfort in this precarious base state we allow ourselves a peace we have never known before.