I don’t care what anyone says. There was not a snowball’s chance in hell that the fourth album, IV, by Marvelous 3 was going to suck.
Marvelous 3 doesn’t do suck, but what Marvelous 3 does is showcased best on IV.
What do they do?
Pure unadulterated rock-n-roll.
Goddamn, I miss great rock music. When rock and roll was fun and light hearted, “Kill a Motherfucker that Breaks Your Heart” and when the moments where the lyrics are a bit heavier, the music and the vibe is at eleven, betraying the seriousness of the song “Jackie and Tina”.
Marvelous 3’s album, ReadySexGo, was released in 2000 and now twenty-three years later, the band seemingly picked up right where they left off two decades ago.
On the album, the band states,
This is a record that’s a love letter to aging, yet never growing “old’. It’s a nostalgic ride down new roads. It’s a shout out to growth but remembering roots and celebrating them. It’s also mostly made for the 3 of us, who have remained the best of friends when the industry tried to tear us down and break us. We have played together since we were kids, so the fact that we still have that bond is really incredible.
I’ve now spent a week with IV and it was my company as I traipsed all over Sydney for SXSW Sydney. I realised as I listened to the album that it’s not just the familiarity of Marvelous 3 that keeps fans, it’s their zest for their music and their craft. The trio knows how to write catchy and infectious ear worms. Listen to “If We’re On Fire (Let it Burn)” once and you’re singing it for days on end. The moment you think you have the song out of your system, you find yourself humming the lyrics again…and again…and again.
Every aspect that longtime M3 fans love about the band, new fans will discover with IV. The great thing about Marevlous 3 is that one doesn’t have to know, appreciate, or love their past body of work to treasure IV. Discovering one gem of Marvelous 3 is to soon discover the rest of their work with joy.
Jayce Fincher is an underrated bass player and “The Devil Made the World While God was Sleeping” and “She Sheila” solidifies that he is overlooked. His bass playing is the wave that allows vocalist and guitarist, Butch Walker, to rise to the front, to woo the audience or ensnare the listener into the folds of M3’s fanbase. As for drummer Mitch “Slug” McLee, I have always felt that he was the wrangler of the two crazy cats in front of him. Keeping the two in time to the beat cannot be an easy task and if you’ve had the complete joy and pleasure of catching a Marvelous 3 show, you’ll know that the zest and spontaneity of the band is infectious and as a unit, they’ll spin on a dime if the urge so fancies them.
Perhaps the best thing about IV though are the lyrics. The lyrics have always been the shining star of every Marvelous 3 album. They’re honest, real, and relatable. Sometimes they’re hilarious storytelling like “Katrina” from the album Math and Other Problems, but no matter the subject or the style, Butch Walker knows how to craft a hooky song and IV has ten hooky songs. Nine that were written by the frontman himself.
IV will not disappoint longtime fans. It sure didn’t disappoint me. If someone is new and IV is their first taste of Marvleous 3, they are sure to have a mouthwatering experience and will be hungry to hear more.
IV is fifty percent nostalgia, fifty percent new and one hundred and ten percent the rock and roll that is needed right now. Marvelous 3 proves they still got it and that they’re still ready to inject rock and roll with fun, sass, infectious hooks, and catchy lyrics.
MUST LISTEN TRACKS: every single track on IV
FAVOURITE TRACKS: “Kill a Motherfucker that Breaks Your Heart”, “If We’re on Fire (Let it Burn)”, “PTSD (Post Touring Singer’s Depression)”, “She Sheila”
