London trio Mary In The Junkyard cheekily dub their sound “weepy chaos rok”, but they often summon something far more: an intricate magic weaved from vocalist and guitarist Clari Freeman-Taylor’s poetic, observational eye and freewheeling arrangements, equally informed by wiry math-laden contemporaries and elegant classical stylings. After a tireless couple of years and adventures stateside (a two-month tour with Wet Leg included), the former NME Cover stars have gone from courting Corsica buzz to counting fans in Marina Abramović.
Facing their long-awaited debut upon this new foundation, ‘Role Model Hermit’ opens self-reflexive: “It is yours babe, you deserve it,” Freeman-Taylor pronounces on ‘Mantra III’, the art rockers eager to meet the big moment with grounded grit. David Addison’s grooves follow, propulsive and steady: ‘Blood’ is a punchy take on skewed love, while the wild guitar on ‘Seek And Destroy’ tracks a brooding portrait of self-sabotage.
Freeman-Taylor remains the trio’s elastic engine – “I embrace the thunder and the lightning… I’m a creature of only instinct”, she proclaims on ‘New Muscles’ over an insistent dance groove – shifting between hushed confessionals and howling rasp. But the record’s sinewy assurance and structure across its first half also forms a trap, at times more constraint than conduit for the trio’s natural charisma. The slacker muscle of ‘Peter The Dog’ and folk-rock pulse of ‘Myrtle’ feel cool, compelling, but almost too contained.
Only on ‘Crash Landing’ does the record find a turning point. Freeman-Taylor channels her inner Sue Tompkins over trip-hopped harmonium drone, stuttering and soaring into an evocative take on closure. Saya Barbaglia’s viola plays a simmering balancing act throughout – at times tempering the trio’s serene worldbuilding, while elsewhere summoning violent tempests. On the dark ‘Thou Shalt Sprout’, Addison keeps a patient roll, supporting fable-like harmonies conjuring tales of familial sacrifice. Across the latter half, the music again feels like a shared pact for dreaming, structures that build and wind.
It’s in that collective fluidity that the trio’s singular charisma glows: playful, poetic, poignant. The theatrics culminate on closer ‘Mouse’, an oceanic tale inspired by Iceland’s frigid grandeur over Dirty Three-esque post-rock. Freeman-Taylor collides notes of longing against glacial walls of sound before Barbaglia’s string noise crumbles the arrangement, glitching as if gnawing at their own fantasy.
When the widescreen moments wind down, an adolescent Freeman-Taylor still seems to hold the key, as if a reminder above this new reality. “I want you to know me through my songs / They’re so much cleaner than anything I could say,” she sings solo on ‘Candelabra’, written “many years” before the band’s big moment. It’s starkly honest over gentle classical guitar, adorned with just a quick giggle before the take rolls. Sometimes magic is all in the details, grand or granular.
Details
- Record label: AMF
- Release date: July 3, 2026