MUMBLE AND PEG
All My Waking Moments in a Jar (Vaccination Records)
Reviewed by Holly Day

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I'm not sure I could dislike anything Mumble and Peg put out. I tried to dislike this record, mostly because I thought their previous release (This Ungodly Hour, also on Vaccination Records) was about as perfect a record as you could make, and I was hoping that this new release would sound exactly as the one before it. However, All My Waking Moments... did more than grow on me - it got me humming its angry dark melodies during my morning walks, it got me aching to play it on a regular basis instead of listening to all the new music I was supposed to be paying attention to. Frontman Erik Carter manipulates tension beautifully in these creepy, eerie songs about - well, I don't know what they're actually about, but I'm awfully glad they're not about me - set against a complex backdrop of acoustic guitar-and-piano ballads, Bowie-esque riffs and arrangements, metal-era power chords, and the smoky melancholy of good roots music.

© 2001 - Holly Day