Album of the Week! M(h)aol – Something Soft
Staff Review
M(h)aol – Something Soft
M(h)aol return this week with Something Soft, their second full-length album and the follow-up to 2023’s well-received debut Attachment Styles. Now operating as a trio after the departure of singer Róisín Nic Ghearailt and bassist Zoe Greenway (though Greenway does contribute bass to some of the album’s tracks), the Irish band sound leaner, focused, and even more exploratory.
The album opens with Pursuit, where the combination of Sean Nolan’s sharp, angular guitar and Constance Keane’s softly sung vocal (she now takes the lead) recalls the mid-80s SST-era Sonic Youth—think Shadow of a Doubt (1986) or Beauty Lies in the Eye (1987). But the track doesn’t stay quiet for long. It erupts into something volatile, Keane’s vocals growing ever more insistent, ferocious, and urgent—more Kathleen Hanna than Kim Gordon—while Nolan’s guitar and Jamie Hyland’s bass paint the track static black with textural waves of distortion. Drums blaze a metronomic path forward, unwavering and central.
I Miss My Dog and You Are Temporary, But the Internet is Forever follow, moving into more experimental territory. The interplay between guitar and drums is outstanding, as Nolan and Keane interweave churning, rhythmic motifs. Keane’s half-buried spoken word vocals provide a brilliant foil with something quietly disquieting.
Despite being a three-piece, M(h)aol generate a sound that shifts ably between the minimal and the total. They call to mind Slint, Fugazi, Shellac, but also boundary-pushers at the outer fringes of indie-rock—Mica Levi’s Micachu & The Shapes, and with their tonal and rhythmic probing, more recently Moin and Still House Plants. While likely to be classified as post-punk, M(h)aol clearly draw more from the openness and elasticity of that label than any stylistic convention. Another touchstone might be the early 2000s garage rock revival—particularly the rawer beginnings of Yeah Yeah Yeahs—but rather than offering up a tribute to the indie-sleaze records that blended dance and punk, M(h)aol present something like an inversion: the decadent excess filtered out, leaving something leaner and more elemental.
As the record progresses, it becomes more playful, even danceable. On Clementine, Snare, and IBS, Nolan’s guitar is at its most inventive, hellbent on sounding as far removed from a traditional guitar as possible. He conjures rhythmic tangles of chaos, yet with an architect’s sense of precision. Credit must also go to Hyland, whose production and mixing is superb—streamlining the melee into a collection of digestible, balanced vignettes, each a marvel of its own.
Another highlight 1-800-Call-Me-Back centres around a telephone dial tone used as its primary melodic riff, beneath which bass rumbles and growls while guitars respond with curious, nuanced gestures. Keane’s assured, half-spoken vocal evokes a cold, disconnected confidence—a quality reminiscent of Nicola Kuperus from electro duo ADULT., or even Charli XCX. Is Something Soft the No Wave Brat? A fanciful stretch, maybe—but it’s worth considering the reach of pop’s influence, even in spaces far removed. Closer to home, perhaps Gilla Band are M(h)aol’s nearest kindred spirits. Still, there’s very little in the current Irish consciousness quite like them.
M(h)aol are kind of like buried treasure—dug up, reburied, dug up again. And Soemthing Soft is a shining jewel. And let’s remember that all of this comes in the wake of two core members’ departure, with the absence of Nic Ghearailt in particular must have initially cast a significant shadow.
Something Soft is, contrary to its title, a jagged, tough, and brutal triumph. It sounds like a band with nothing to lose—which, as history has proven time and again, is how great records are made. This one is no exception. There’s a striking freedom to the band’s experimentation and expression—both vocally and instrumentally. It feels like the product of a collective closing itself off from the outside world and playing without fear or constraint. Less tinker, more play. And through that play emerges a sonic identity as unique as it is meticulously considered.
All in all, Something Soft is a stunning, brilliant second record from M(h)aol. Alongside Maria Somerville’s recently released Luster, it sets the bar high for Irish albums in 2025.
