One More Round – The Manky Melters
One More Round is the debut-EP from French band The Manky Melters, not to be confused with Another Round from genre-colleagues Barleyjuice. If you’ve read this blog before you know that I have a soft spot for Irish inspired folk-punk. The Manky Melters both being from France and being female fronted has two unique traits that made me interested in listening to this release. Three of the band members are members of Celtic-rock band The Moorings, so there’s experience from the genre present in the band as well.
It starts off nautical-themed, a classic theme in the genre, with opener Adrift. It’s a pretty nice song, albeit perhaps nothing that sticks out from the colleagues in the genre too much. YOLO is a straight up party-song about living life to the fullest. It’s got some nice energy and vibe, and mixes those Irish influences nicely with the pop-punk sound. One More Round continues in the same spirit, and Yee Ha is an instrumental piece that lets the band stretch those folk-muscles a bit, and I think it works nicely. It plays homage to the genre but keeps the band’s fun side intact. This Wandering Day lyrically has a nice folky feel to it, and Shenanigans keeps the energy up through to the end of the EP, with the first light stab towards the establishment in the lyrics. The EP as a whole does by no means overstay its welcome.
Overall the sound is on the pop-punk side more than the Irish folk side, but the folk-influences are mixed in nicely in the sound, and never feel out of place. In my ears it feels as if the bass is pretty upfront in the production at times, which gives a slightly boomy sound, a bit on the cost of the other registers. I was afraid of there being some french accents shining through, but the singer manages to hide that nicely. It’s refreshing to hear some female vocalists coming up in the genre as well, as opposed to not only being part of the instrumental side of the business.
The lyrics don’t go anywhere too deep most of the time, but that’s clearly not The Manky Melters point with One More Round. They’re simply here to have a good time and share that with us, and I see nothing wrong with that. Is it adding anything new to the genre? Perhaps not, but it’s a fun and engaging listen from start to end if you’re a fan of the genre, so I’d say mission accomplished.