- Having studied music at a tertiary level, I practiced my way to the lofty, even cringe-worthy heights of musicianship where I was able to confidently play through jazz fusion compositions. That cost me three years. You’ll understand my increasing sense of inadequacy when confronted by the fact that Spanish band Mourn released their debut only last year and within twelve months they’ve followed with Ha, Ha, He. An album exploding with ideas and technical advancements that straight up refutes that youth is wasted on the youthful; they’re all under twenty.

The new album has a vitality to it that alt-rock or even art punk hasn’t had in a while with deep connections to the same dynamism as the likes of Sleater-Kinney. Where 2015’s release relished the energy in simple techniques such as downstrokes, here on Ha, Ha, He. intricacies abound and there's a tangible excitement in their experimentation with dissonance and flat harmony; and, like, I literally mean flat - one finger, flat across the fretboard. you can hear it in the pummelling Evil Dead and the following Brother Brother. It’s one of the great things that makes the guitar distinct - when you embrace it’s physicality. It's the ability to easily pull out deliciously awkward phrases which only a very accomplished pianist could manage.

Sure, this kind of practice is heard in jazz and metal but within a youthful punk context it isn’t neat and known, it’s intuitive. Even if it isn’t (and I’m happy to surrender to derision of my further inadequacy) its youthfulness gives it its ability to be, without contrivance. Just like how The Goon Sax can sing about Home Haircuts and -as droll as it may be- there's a genuine sense of whimsy that charms you, versus what it would be like if Frenzal Rhomb sang it and you’d have cheap giggle at the expense of those tongue-in-cheek fools.

In making reference to forgetting your homework on the plucky Howard through to the emotional maturity displayed on the thrashy Presidential Bullshit, it suggests that maybe this album should’ve taken more than a William Blake excerpt and just brazenly used the title from his collection of poems Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience because witnessing the the kind of creative growth on Ha, Ha, He. is truly something to behold.

- NJR.