It has been eight years since Green Mohair Suits released an album (Evans Street, 2016) and now the quartet – comprised of Brian Campeau, Richard Cuthbert, Jason Mannell and Ben Romalis – are on the cusp of releasing their fifth long player, Stan Wella. The first single, the glorious ‘Hell or High Water’, reintroduced us to the clear evidence of their strong collaboration: their harmonies. The lead vocal on that song tells one story and, if left to its own devices, would be perfectly fine but with the addition of harmonies it becomes something else: a Greek chorus, foretelling consequences.
So it is on their latest single, ‘You’ve Done it Again’, which is having its premiere here today. Sure, things start jauntily enough in this somewhat cautionary tale about a friend who has a habit of letting people down. The narrator seems to be accepting of the behaviour even as he is clearly moving away from it. But as time, and those harmonies, go on, we hear and feel the aggregation of grievance: the behaviour has been too much, the cheerful tolerance is gone, and the friendship is over. Because what ‘you’ve done it again’ refers to is ‘let down another friend’. There is a laundry list of missed opportunities for connection – birthdays, funerals, holidays – laid over Beatles-esque harmonies that sound like that Greek chorus again, foretelling doom, and the sonic disarray at the end of the song signifies that too.
The song was written by Cuthbert, who says, ‘Time can be difficult on friendships, and as people age and move away, maintaining them becomes challenging. While the song is written from an outside perspective, it resonates with many of my own friendship relationships.’
Happily for music lovers, the four members of Green Mohair Suits are not in any kind of disarray, sonic or otherwise, and the two singles indicate that there will be a range of story and musical experiences when it is released on 13 September.
Listen to the song:
