Take Me Back To Planet Earth. Muck and the Mires

After the title song getting the spotlight on it recently, it's time to focus on the mini album it is on. It opens with that fun single pretending like the world is still in the mid 60s musically. The sound/recording is better than bands were capable of at the time, the guitar solo of a grit that was unobtainable back then. For the rest just tick all the boxes and you will see that they are all filled in neatly.

Because of these boxes and the way the band presents itself, out of a slight of hand I could call Muck and the Mires anachronistic or even a pastiche of what has gone by a long time ago. That would be a grave mistake. For several reasons. To mention the two most evident. The dedication with which the band works and the quality of its songs.

Muck and the Mires gives the world songs that are on par on a minimum with the sub top of the mid 60s and a few that go for the top. Listening to the songs on Take Me Back To Planet Earth shows me that all the songs have intricate arrangements. Little extra melodies added to the songs, a farfisa organ or a harmonica worked into a song. The variations between garage rock, pop and a soulful interlude shows that the band is able to work with different influences and make them come out on top.

In the lyrics it is not 1966. Zoom meetings, number blocking? It all comes by. 'She Blocked My Number' is one of the more exciting songs on the album. That organ comes by once again with its high rather wining sound, bringing Them into mind immediately. The guitars rock and riff out, the rhythm is super tight. The kind of song that makes my mind jump up and down while listening.

Take Me Back To Planet Earth is well built up I notice. In the middle the mood is taken down slightly only to truly go out with the second single 'Zoom Break Up'. A song as exciting as the title song opening it.

There are so many details reminding me of things from long ago on this album. It could well be that a music pub quiz could be filled with questions just from these six songs. That would all be nice but not very successful had Take Me Back To Planet Earth not been the album it is. Muck and the Mires truly is Boston's gift to garage rock lovers all across the world.

All the songs were written and recorded in these sad Covid-19 days. It seems something good can come out of a period like this. For me it is getting to know my indirect neighbours a lot better and listening to this great record.

Wo.

You can listen to and order Take Me Back To Planet Earth here:

https://rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/take-me-back-to-planet-earth

or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g