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Guitar duo Polly b Rose drop their debut album ‘Moltencholia’

By Nic Howden

"If suddenly the clouds come down, I’d blast them all to queendome come" (Heed The Killer)

Out of the ‘biz’ for some time, Polly b Rose don’t look back. They’re artists. But for context, with Adrianne Lenker, PJ Harvey, Courtney Barnett and “the dark spirit of Joy Division” among their influences, the band comprises Rose Carlotti, formerly singer/songwriter/guitarist with The Heart Throbs, and Pol Burton who was the original drummer for pop ‘punks’ Transvision Vamp.

Touted post-punk band The Heart Throbs released three LPs on the One Little Indian label, late 80s/early 90s, and toured with the likes of Thee Hypnotics, Wedding Present and the Mary Chain. As the acclaimed voice of The Heart Throbs, Rose’s vocal is to the fore here as it was then.

Polly b Rose 2
Polly b Rose

Pol is practiced in the studio and on stage too of course, having put the beats behind a hit album, a couple of chart troubling singles, and toured behind them. A multi-instrumentalist, Pol plays drums, bass and guitar on this record and it’s a full band sound as a result. So, trite two-piece ‘more like the Spinanes than the White Stripes’ comparisons are not necessary.

This energetic, exciting, wonderfully excess free Polly b Rose album is a product of that history – the players’ experiences on and off the circuit.

Meaning, by the band’s own design, ‘a state of warmth and brilliance, of liquified fusion’, ‘Moltencholia‘ is 10 songs in 35 minutes, and it’s amok with emotive rhythms.

From opener, ‘Heed The Killer‘, kicking in on a big bassline and an echo of a celebrated Terry Bickers’ riff, to ‘Too Much of Everything‘, which wraps the record, ‘Moltencholia‘ is two musicians, to the power of more, exploring their sound and vision. There are new wave, old wave and alt country chops, it’s wordy, the vocal mopping up musical space with tales of “monsters, killers, heroes, lovers, space, storms, questions, polar bears…” and blinding songs that draw strength, and understanding, from repeated listens. Among them, ‘Labyrinthine‘, with a hint of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart‘ to the intro ahead of Rose almost spitting the clusters of lyrics, and ‘Rainbows End‘, driven by that winsome About a Girl riff.

Polly b Rose

Released last year, the single, whatever that means, ‘So It Ends So It Fades‘, is the perfect place to start. An ethereal vocal on top of a propulsive, compulsive, krautrock pulse, the song sits in the middle of the album where it throws a long shadow and big left hook “…my fist will punch through bricks and mortar.” 

Not familiar with the Heart Throbs or the short Polly b Rose back story, it was an education digging into ‘Moltencholia‘. There are plans for live dates, apparently, Rose and Pol augmented by others – and it will be really good to see how these songs shift and adapt under the lights.

“It isn’t like I understand everything that is said, but I try my best not to be easily led…” (Too Much of Everything)

Stream ‘Moltencholia‘ HERE and buy the album on limited edition CD HERE

Moltencholia album cover
  1. Heed The Killer
  2. Labyrinthine
  3. Rainbows End
  4. Colour Me Out (Soundkissed)
  5. No Deliverance
  6. So It Ends So It Fades
  7. The Drifter
  8. Done Disappearing
  9. Hit The Minor Chord
  10. Too Much Of Everything
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