Big Mannequin Pussy fans like us will know that they’ve been teasing new material to follow up their blockbuster 2019 album Patience, and today is finally the day: they return with a new track and video called “Control”. It comes ahead of a new EP called Perfect, which arrives on May 21 via Epitaph. With the pandemic having kept them apart for much of 2020, the new songs came out in a burst of creativity once they were able to meet up again (although they are now down to just a trio). Singer Missy says:
“We just figured if we forced ourselves into this situation where someone could hit ‘record,’ something might come out. We’d never written that way before.”
It might be the first time they’d done something so spur-of-the-moment, but “Control” feels like a natural continuation from Patience, building on that album’s new-found dynamics and using more – ahem – patience to make the gradual cathartic unburdening all the more impactful. Missy begins the song in a state of anxiety; “I’m in control / that’s what I tell myself,” she sings over plaintive guitar, but that paper-thin delusion quickly dissolves in a slow-burning crackle of mounting dissatisfaction. “I’ve come undone,” she admits as the band explodes into life, before turning her blade outwards: “Thanks for watching me pleading / Out and over all your sheets”. Mannequin Pussy only pour more gas on the fire from there, building to an anthemic finale where Missy repeats “something’s in your eyes” with sheer abandon before the trio wheel off into a pyrotechnic display on their punk rock chemistry.
“Control” also comes with a video, directed by and starring Missy. You can watch it below or listen to the song on streaming platforms.
Mannequin Pussy’s Perfect EP comes out on May 21 via Epitaph. You can find the band on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
