Mouse Teeth – ‘Ten Of Swords’ EP Review: A powerful opus of punk and poetry
When you pull a ten of swords during a tarot reading, it comes as a warning. It’s a painful image; a body either in crushing agony or already dead, pinned to the floor as a visceral sign of a low point. It tells you that whatever is happening must end before it destroys you or comes as a final death knell. On her debut EP, Ten Of Swords, Mouse Teeth writes from that place, capturing the hurt, seeing the omen and eventually, pulling the swords out.
As she tackles the topics of grief, chronic illness, love and rituals on both a mythic and domestic scale, Mouse Teeth’s debut emerges with a polished finish and an artistic assurance that people years into their careers still haven’t managed. Weaving between roaring art rock songs into tenderly read and deeply introspective spoken word pieces, every detail is handled with a vision that she refuses to limit or shrink to fit any industry rule or standard.
In the story of Ten Of Swords, Nancy Dawkins sings about the misogyny she faced in the music industry before adopting her Mouse Teeth moniker in her later years. “Nothing I have done as an adult ever works as well as being a child did,” she says on ’A Sword Pulled From My Back’. As she reflects on the years she’s spent being mistreated or underestimated, watching women around her experience the same, she pulls that sword out and turns it around, reclaiming it as her own. Earlier in the tracklist, ‘The Original Of Laura’ proves how sharp her pen can be. “Cause we are expendable / Our words don’t mean the same thing / You say jump we’ll say how high / And flinch at the sound of your name,” she sings directly to the men in the industry who are the problem, defending the victims forced to still work under their regime.
But Ten Of Swords, really, is a story of victory and power. The power of being loud and brave, yes, but also the victory of allowing yourself to be soft and knowing that’s just as potent. There’s a clear sense of prayer throughout the EP as the words repeatedly return to simple desires of community, recognition and love at its purest. “All I really needed was a friend,” she says at one place. “Don’t fuck me up just give me conversation,” she asks at another.
All of this leads up to the explosive and affirming finale of ‘Playing The Hermit’, which bursts to life as it transitions to the poem ‘Playing The Fool’. If Ten of Swords is a message to let something die, The Fool card is a message to live again. “These days, I’m in the business of loving,” she declares, beginning an opus on feeling and healing as sentiments that don’t have to be these big grand states but can be right there in the smallest moments. As she gets to her feet again with the music crescendoing and soaring, the EP ends with the lesson of it all; “It’s all love, after all, even the bad stuff.”
As each song rolls seamlessly into the next, sweeping you up and carrying you through, Mouse Teeth displays a level of artistry that far more seasoned artists would envy, marvel at or be utterly inspired by. It’s an EP that will reveal something new with each listen as it sits like a treasure trove of incredible lyricism, perfectly balanced instrumentation and bubbling, complex emotion. With so much to give and so much to say, it’s a triumph.
For fans of: Building an altar in your bedroom, carrying crystals in your pocket and asking your tarot cards what to do about all the hurt and anger in your tummy.
A tarot card pulled for the occasion: The Six of Cups (reversed) says to stop crying over sad lyrics and live a little.
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