Mice on Stilts: I Am Proud of You (digital outlets)

Ben Morley of this Auckland-based band is honest enough to admit it's been a while since their last album.

True, we wrote about their previous Hope For a Mourning  back in 2016 and were very impressed by it's gentle folk-prog aspects and musical ambition.

The band (and singer-writer Morley) were exceptionally accomplished with a guiding intelligence which kept the worst tendencies of prog (pretension) in check.

If we were to say it's been a long time between drinks that might be inconsiderate because Morley says this equally impressive album “explores the growing pains of addiction, sobriety and recovery. From court houses to hospital beds and jail cells to rehab, the album is an introspective offering of redemption”.

When he answered one of our questionnaire questions years ago about what might be another career choice if music was denied him said, “addicted to heroin”. 

But before you run screaming for your K-pop collection, let's be clear here. Morley is a smart songwriter.

This album is more along the lines of chamber folk with strings and piano, a kind of art music which offers a sensitive song cycle with a soaring quality married to some gorgeous flights of melody.

Adjectives like “cinematic” and “evocative” come easily to this music.

And Morley can really sing, in the sense he has a range, emotion and – when required – the power to take flight on songs like Devotion Decline, yet be as intimate as Rufus Wainwright on the lovely string-enhanced folk sound of Grey Diving Bell or the Radiohead-influenced National Radio.

In 2016 when we introduced Morley answering a questionnaire we said, “it's fair to say that we probably haven't seen or a heard a band like Auckland six-piece Mice on Stilts for decades, perhaps even ever before. Their expansive music owes debts to atmospheric prog-rock and romantic classic music with touches of introverted folk and . . . “

All of that still holds true – although this album goes deeper and wider – and we would elevate Morley into the top ranks of our singer/songwriter/arrangers as someone with something to say and – locating himself between chamber pop and contemporary prog (of the solo Steve Wilson/Porcupine Tree/Pineapple Thief kind) – a finely-tuned vehicle in Mice on Stilts

I Am Proud of You is a remarkable album and listening experience.

Highly recommended.

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You can hear and pre-order this album (released March 17) at bandcamp here. 

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