This Record Might Not Harsh Your Mellow

It’s been four years since Tilly and the Wall’s last album, but the Omaha indie darlings are back to reclaim their previous hedonistic glory. The only thing is, that glory is more emulated than attained. Standout tracks like “Love Riot” and “Thicker Than Thieves” bring the fun but fall short of propelling Tilly towards much of anything. You can pull the age card and wonder if the band’s getting a bit too old to endearingly fuck shit up, but the stagnation of Heavy Mood reaches beyond growing up. Not every album needs to be a breakthrough, of course. This one just feels like Tilly and the Wall are going through the motions.

The band has always had somewhat of a fighting spirit to their songs, sprinkled with an idiosyncratic, endearing indie softness. For an album called Heavy Mood, the lone “Hey Rainbow” is just about the only melancholic song. Lo-fi guitar anchors some seriously eerie vocals as organ tones push the whole mood down. “Hey rainbow, where’d my love go?” echo frontwomen Kianna Alarid and Neely Jenkins. In terms of deliberate lovelorn longing and sadness, this is the closest you’ll get to a Heavy Mood, really. That’s truly one of the album’s biggest disappointments. We’ve been here before, and with more innovative sounds. Heavy Mood just misses the mark.